The Night Of Halloween
by AltairSV
Summary: If you thought Halloween is all about trick or treats and jack o lanterns, then think again. The SK gang's gonna have the greatest Halloween of their lives as they try to find out who let loose all the tricks and treats in the streets of Funbari. Lyserg
1. Double Double Toil and Trouble

Hello everyone! This is my newest and latest fic, obviously, hehehe!

Wait, before I forget guys, I noticed that all my SK fics start with a reunion or a party…oh my…

The title explains what holiday I made this fic especially for; you guessed it, Halloween! Why am I starting early you ask? I know it is not Halloween yet, but this fic has a lot of chapters and my goal is to upload the very last chapter on Halloween itself!

Read and review guys! I hope you enjoy this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! Get ready and be ready to read and experience Halloween in Funbari like no other. Spirits and ghosts aren't the only ones who are roaming the streets at the night of Halloween.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King and any of its characters.

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Chapter 1: Double Double Toil And Trouble

The houses of Funbari are furnished with all sorts of decorations. Cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, and spiders hung on the walls and scattered all over the backyard of their houses. What time of the year is it you ask? Why…none other than Halloween of course!

This is a favorite holiday of the youth, for today is the day where they can dress up as monsters, ghosts, witches, and more. They knock door to door saying "Trick or Treat" in their scariest voice as they are given candy. They roam the streets all and gather as much candy as they can; and when they're done, they party all night long. A high percentage of those who enjoyed Halloween, were of course, the shamans. Unknown to ordinary people, these shamans can see ghosts as they roam the streets on Halloween night.

A short blonde haired boy walked along the foggy streets of Funbari, his destination was the onsen. "Boy it sure is chilly out here, what a coincidence the weather matches the mood for Halloween this year" Manta continued walking, ignoring the ghosts that were floating happily down the streets.

Manta ran to the entrance of the onsen and flinched as he saw it decorated with skeletons, cobwebs, spiders, and two jack o lanterns; one was badly carved, and the other one only had half of its face. Manta knew that there were only two people in the whole world who makes jack o lanterns like those: Yoh and Horohoro.

He opened the door, removed his shoes, and entered the house. He saw Anna in her usual outfit watching a horror show in the T.V., one that Manta would rather skip out on. "Hey there Anna, Happy Halloween!"

"You too shorty…" Anna said in her usually calm voice. "Now go help Yoh prepare for the Halloween party or else I'll make you cook."

"Uh…yes ma'am" Manta rushed out of the room and roamed the house looking for Yoh. He finally found him in the kitchen attempting to carve a jack o lantern that looks presentable, according to Anna. Horohoro got kicked out of the kitchen for eating the pumpkins, so he got sent to the backyard to help Ren fix decorations. "Hey Yoh and Amidamaru! Happy Halloween!"

"Happy Halloween to you too Manta!" Yoh said happily as he finished carving a face on a pumpkin. "Hey Manta, what do you think of this?"

Manta scanned at the pumpkin and looked at it. "It looks fine, but the left eye is way bigger than the right eye…but it would make a good scary pumpkin."

"Thanks Manta…" Yoh stood up and put the jack o lantern beside the five other jack o lanterns that he carved; all were deformed, but they could make a good horror house decoration.

"Where'd you get all the pumpkins?" Manta asked, looking at the twenty pumpkins that were stacked on top of each other.

"Jun and Ren brought some over" Yoh grabbed another pumpkin and began removing the stuff inside it.

"Hey Manta, Happy Halloween!" Ryu entered the door carrying a small pot. Tamao entered shortly afterwards and greeted Manta a Happy Halloween, both he and Ryu were in charge of cooking. Manta greeted both of them back as he watched Tamao gather the stuffing that Yoh removed from the pumpkin.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Manta asked, then Anna suddenly came in, as if she were waiting for him to say those eight words.

"You can either help Yoh carve the pumpkins, cook with Ryu and Tamao, prepare the drinks with Lyserg and Chocolove, or decorate the backyard." Anna said. Apparently, her show was done, and it was time for her to either help out or give orders.

"Uh…see ya Yoh, I'll help with the decorations…" Manta ran out of the kitchen as fast as his legs could go. He ran past the corridors and into the back yard. If you look at the way it was decorated, it would already seem as if you were in a cemetery.

The fence was decorated with red and green spray painted newspapers and bright violet Christmas lights. Skeletons sat in the corners of the fence and trees; don't be surprised if they were real. Some of Yoh's badly carved pumpkins were set somewhere on the ground a long with the Styrofoam tombstones. There were also a few scary head masks on the ground and smoke came out of their mouths, for a smokescreen machine hid beneath it, courtesy of Ren and Jun of course. The bushes were covered with some toilet paper, cobwebs, and spiders. Candles were also neatly aligned at the sides of the backyard; the hose was even pulled out in the backyard and disguised as a snake. A big stereo was set somewhere near the big space disguised as a ghost.

The guys have out done themselves this time, for the decorations weren't even half done yet. There were three tables aligned together for a buffet which was covered with a black cloth with jack-o-lantern pictures. The only thing that was on it were the plates, cups, utensils, and four punch bowls. "Hey guys! Happy Halloween!" Manta greeted as he stepped off the porch and into the slightly foggy backyard.

Everyone greeted Manta back. Chocolove and Lyserg were reading the ingredients and mixing them for their drinks; Kororo provided the ice and the center piece of the table which was skillfully carved by Ren to make a figure of a headless horseman holding a pumpkin in its arms. Horohoro and Ren were busy hanging the plastic bats on the trees. Faust and Eliza were arranging the skeletons; like it was said earlier, don't be surprised if the skeletons were real.

A car honk was heard outside the onsen, the ones who came in were Jun, Pirika, and Jeanne, who picked up more stuff they need for the party. This was going to be a great party. All of Yoh's friends and their main spirits are going to be present today.

"Move it Yoh!" Anna walked behind Yoh who was carrying six pumpkins at a time while she carried the big dish that Ryu prepared.

"I have a feeling this is going to be the best Halloween party that we'll have" Yoh said while setting the pumpkins beside the buffet table. Actually, it was everyone's first Halloween party, because before the shaman fight, they celebrated their Halloween alone with their family, some of them didn't even consider celebrating Halloween.

* * *

A sinister figure sat on a roof at a random house in the distance, watching Yoh and his friends prepare for their Halloween party. "Interesting holiday…I'll give them all a grand Halloween trick and treat of their lives." With one wave of his gloved hand, he made several portals appear on random areas of Funbari. Strange and oddly shaped shadows crawled out of the portals with their eyes glowing in different shades and colors. They started roaming the streets and they scattered in different directions. "Now, it's time to pay my little brother a visit."

* * *

"Alright…just a few more preparations and decorations and then we're ready for the party!" Yoh said as he set another dish made by Tamao on the table. A growl was heard from somewhere in the backyard.

"Can't you wait till the party starts Horohoro?" Ren complained as he hung a lantern shaped like a monster's head on a tree.

"Dude…that wasn't me…" Horohoro said as he listened to his stomach closer and didn't hear any rumbling. After checking all the other suspects, everyone started wondering where the sound was really coming from. "One thing's for sure, we know now that it's not in the backyard."

"Maybe some one's outside…" Tamao said as she started walking out of the backyard. "I'll check and see who it is."

Unfortunately for them, the one who was outside suddenly and literally jumped over the fence and into the party. The gang couldn't help but stare at the person, or rather, creature that did such a stunt.

"Uh…nice trick kid…but isn't trick or treating supposed to start at around 6:30 pm? It's only 6:00 pm…" Yoh said scratching the back of his head and examining the creature from top to bottom. It was a black gorilla-like man that towered three meters above the ground; his fangs were showing, his claws were long, and he looked rabid. "Are you supposed to be Bigfoot? Great costume kid, it looks very realistic!"

The Bigfoot slammed both fists on the ground and caused a very light earthquake. "Hey, take it easy will ya? Joke's over!" Chocolove said, but the Bigfoot kept rampaging around the backyard, destroying some of the decorations.

Ren tackled the Bigfoot to the ground with the help of Ryu. "Do you know how long it took for us to put those decorations up you brat?" Ren started violently pulling Bigfoot's head so that the mask would be removed. "Why won't this stupid mask come off? Ryu, did you find a zipper or something?"

Whoever was wearing the costume was now thrashing on the ground as the others held him down trying to find some sort of zipper or lock that would remove the costume. "Hey Yoh…the costume's not coming off..." Manta said nervously as they saw the creature thrash about on the ground, tossing aside all those who were pinning him down just awhile age; now he was really mad. He stood up and growled angrily at the shamans. "Guys, it's real, the BIGFOOT"S REAL!"

"WHAT?" Everyone tried to hold down Bigfoot who was still rampaging about. They tried their best not to hurt him, but the Bigfoot was trying its best to hurt them.

"I have an idea! Kororo, Spirit ball mode, Hyo Gattai!" Horohoro merged with Horohoro and stood in the path of the charging Bigfoot. "Icy Wind!" Horohoro blew a cold breath towards Bigfoot and slowly froze him stiff.

"Nice work Horohoro…" Chocolove said as they examined the Bigfoot. "What is this thing? Is it for real? I thought Bigfoot was only a legend?"

"Believe it or not…this thing is real…" Anna said as they continued examining the monster. "…but it's not from this world…it was summoned…"

"Summoned? Who could have the power to do such a thing?" Jeanne asked. The saw the Bigfoot blink its green raging eyes, cracking the ice that it was frozen in. "It's breaking free, we have to do something!"

'Destroy it…' a voice that only Yoh heard spoke. 'Do you want your friends to be hurt?' the voice whispered mockingly to him.

Yoh pulled his sword involuntarily and ran towards Bigfoot, slashing it in to two halves. His friends were astonished at what he did; it was so unlike him to attack like that. As the frozen Bigfoot fell on the ground, it broke down, shattered like glass in to a million very tiny white lights and disappeared. As the tiny white lights disappeared, they heard a soft clap on top of the roof.

They turned around to see who it was, to find their worst enemy which they thought they destroyed months ago. "IT'S HAO!"

Hao stood up on the roof and smiled down on them. "It's so nice to see all of you again…" He looked at them as they quickly drew their weapons, Lyserg fired his pendulum at Hao, but the strangest thing that happened was that it went through him. "Tsk, tsk…you didn't even let me finish yet…" He raised his hand and a gigantic red hand, which belonged to none other than Spirit of Fire, carried Hao from the roof to the ground.

They all took a closer look at him and something seemed different. There were some parts of him that were blurry and transparent, while some of his parts seemed normal. The same went with Spirit of Fire, some parts on its body were blurry and some were normal. "Surprised?" Yoh and the others stared at him from top to bottom; he looked like he was half ghost and half human, literally. "As you can obviously see…I have returned, but not fully…"

"Let me narrate from the beginning…" Hao started to explain his story. "After Yoh delivered the final blow and left, I managed to use the last of my remaining Furyoku to revive myself; however, this is what I was only able to revive, fragments of my body and fragments of the Spirit of Fire. This was it, even if I recover my Furyoku, I can no longer return to my normal body; but I remembered that I read something before. In order for a human who is half a spirit to recover the remaining fragments of its body, he must perform a ritual."

"A ritual?" Anna said. Even if Hao was a spirit, she can't send him to the other side because he still has fragments of his human body.

"Yes. The ritual can only be done once by the caster, on the 31th day of the 10th month." Hao said. "Six hours before midnight, the caster must have the eighteen summoning stones. The eighteen stones will take form of eighteen creatures while they roam under the moonlight for six hours. At the stroke of midnight, the monsters will disappear and the stones will be absorbed by the caster. He who receives all the eighteen stones will be ten times more powerful than he was before!"

"Hao!" Yoh tried to slash him in half, but it just went through his body.

"Don't waster your time trying to hit the fragments in my body…" Hao said as he jumped back on the roof with Spirit of Fire. "I also made this thing a little more interesting; instead of only eighteen chosen monsters roaming around Funbari, I decided to make things liven up by summoning all the monsters in the forbidden world!"

"You did what?" Ryo fired a shot at Hao which unfortunately went through him.

"Like I said, stop wasting time trying to hurt me…" Hao said calmly. "The clock's ticking, by the end of six hours; I shall rise up and destroy all humans and worthless shamans in this world!" Hao disappeared after the flames of Spirit of Fire covered him.

* * *

Everyone sat down on the living room waiting; they have fixed the backyard, and it looked like the party was going to be delayed.

"I've got it…" Anna went inside the living room and sat down with a book in her hand. Finally, after fifteen minutes of reading over her spell books, she was able to find a remedy to the ritual that Hao performed. "You see this magic circle?" Anna showed them an illustration in the book. "Before 12:00 am, we have to gather the eighteen stones and arrange them in this circle."

"How will all the stones fit in here?" Chocolove pointed to the black and white illustration in the book.

"Idiot, we have to draw the circle on the ground!" Ren said while pulling on Chocolove's nose in the process.

"Actually, the circle has to be carved on the ground" Anna continued. "After all the preparations are done, Yoh must read this spell in order to break the ritual."

"Huh? Why me of all the people?" Yoh asked after getting glances from some of his friends.

"You have the strongest Furyoku among all of us here, that's why" Anna said. "I'll be beside you, just do what I do and everything will be fine."

"Sure, no problem with that." Yoh smiled quickly. "So now our only problem is the monsters. How will we find the eighteen stones if there are over a thousand monsters roaming around the area?"

"We have no choice but to split up then" Faust suggested. "It would take too much time if we try to find them in groups."

"I agree" Lyserg added. "So where will we carve the circle?"

"The best place would be in the cemetery" Ryu said.

"Okay, so here's the plan" Yoh instructed. "Each of us will split up in to different directions. When we have all the stones, we'll meet up in the cemetery. Let's make our deadline 11:00 pm so that we can have enough time to set up everything."

"How will we know when we have all the stones?" Tamao asked.

"With this…" Jun handed three talismans to each of them. "It's a homing talisman. When one of you receives a stone, just toss this in the air and it glow yellow then it will fly back to me. When I have eighteen yellow talismans, I'll signal all of you to come to the cemetery."

* * *

"Is everyone ready?" Yoh asked. They were all assembled outside, ready for the battle.

They all nodded. Everyone was already armed; Jeanne used Lyserg's angel while Pirika borrowed one of Jun's summoning talismans.

"Remember guys, nobody's allowed to die, okay?" Yoh smiled goofily. "Remember, when Jun gives us the signal, we have to get to the cemetery as soon as possible."

"Right!" everyone agreed before running out of the onsen in to separate directions.

Hao was on a tall building and he watched them scatter in to different areas from the onsen. He also saw his monsters roaming around the city; they were causing quite a havoc down there on the city; majority hid in their houses and locked the doors, the police were helpless against the monsters, and he saw some shamans who were not Yoh's friends, and they were fighting the monsters.

"This is going to be quite an interesting Halloween indeed, let's see if they'll make it…" Hao looked at a clock which was a short distance from the building. "6:30 pm…"

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The very first chapter of the Sk gang's Halloween saga has just been finished! I hope you guys enjoyed reading the first part and I hope you'll keep reading till the end. Please don't forget to review this chapter too, it would mean a lot to me.

"…it broke down, shattered like glass in to a million very tiny white lights and disappeared…" Just think: Digimons after they have been killed. Right? They shatter and turn into data, which is the tiny white lights.

Don't worry guys, I'll upload regularly since I wrote the chapters in advance. The target finishing deadline date whatever is on Halloween itself…so keep reading and…uh…yeah…review, review, and review. Any questions that will be asked will be answered in the next chapter, so ask away!

My entrance exams are two days from now, so wish me luck.


	2. Callous Kappa

The next chapter is here! Yey! I wasn't kidding when I said that I would be updating regularly. By the way, don't forget to watch out for my other stories! I'm glad you guys liked it by the way. I'm so happy for receiving the reviews thanks guys!

This isn't a Digimon crossover; so that the readers won't have difficulty understanding what I meant when I wrote "…it broke down, shattered like glass in to a million very tiny white lights and disappeared…", I made this scene similar to what would happen if a Digimon were to die so that the readers can imagine what it looks like.

Hao didn't tell Yoh and his friends the method by which they could stop him. Anna did a little research and found the method on how to stop him, Hao just told everyone what happened to him and what he is about to do about his situation. Why did he tell them that? You'll find out in the later chapters.

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Chapter 2: Callous Kappa

Tamao cautiously walked along the dark and spine-chilling streets. "Eeeekkk!" She jumped back when she heard a group of bats shrieking and flying in the dark sky. "I wish I never agreed to this! I should have at least tagged along with someone else…"

"You're being a chicken Tamao!" Ponchi teased, he was able to avoid Tamao's punch luckily.

"Yeah! You have nothing to worry about because we're here to protect you!" Konich said confidently and bravely after teasing her.

"That's what I'm worried about…" Tamao silently muttered under her breath as she continued to walk behind her main spirits. She was already thankful that she didn't run into any monsters yet. She thought that if she kept avoiding them a little longer, the others would get the eighteen stones in time while she won't have to do anything which involves fighting a monster.

Then again, if it were to happen, she'll probably be the only one who didn't contribute and help the group. The feeling of guilt and uselessness would eventually conquer her. Tama shook her head violently to rid her mind of such thoughts. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to fight a monster sooner or later and hope that it is one of the eighteen chosen monsters; besides, there are more than a hundred monsters in Funbari and she won't be always lucky enough to avoid one.

Tamao looked to her left and found an alley where the sound of a whimpering dog was coming from. She took a deep breath and gulped before entering the murky alley in order to see if the dog is alright. She walked deeper and finally managed to see the dog cowering in fear in the corner.

She also spotted a figure when the moonlight shone on it; it was standing in front of the dog. Tamao was silently praying that it wasn't a monster, unfortunately for her, it was a monster. The moonlight showed the creature's features; it has the body of a green tortoise, the head of monkey with a very sharp beak, a bowl shaped crown of their heads with water, and dark blue eyes.

"Is that a Kappa?" Tamao asked Konchi and Ponchi. It definitely was a Kappa, a fierce protective water goblin, but what was it doing in the alley? These monsters only live in the river which is miles away from this place.

"Ummm…n…nice to meet you Mr. Kappa" Tamao stiffly and nervously bowed in front of the Kappa which diverted its attention to the fortune teller.

"What are you doing Tamao?" Konchi asked anxiously.

"I heard that it since a Kappa is very polite, if you bow to one, it will bow back to you…" Tamao said as she tensed up while hearing the Kappa's heavy feet walk towards her. "If they bow back, the water on their head will spill, making them weak and defenseless since it is its source of power."

The Kappa stopped in front of her and growled loudly. "I guess it didn't work…" Ponchi said uneasily. "I guess Hao's monsters aren't polite at all…"

"So what do we do now?" Tamao slowly stood up and backed away from the Kappa step by step.

"Give it a cucumber! They like those things!" Konchi stepped back together with Tamao and Ponchi.

"Where can I get a cucumber at this time of the night and place?" Tamao asked anxiously. "The stores are closed and we don't have any cucumbers in the onsen!"

"Well in that case…" Ponchi and Konchi said in unison. "RUN AWAY!"

"I thought you guys were going to protect me?" Tamao yelled at them, ignoring the Kappa for awhile.

"We'll protect you if the monster's not strong!" the two spirits' voices faded as they ran further and further. "Try to get it to spill the water from its head. Until then, you're on your own!"

"WHAT?" Tamao now darted her attention from her spirits who just called her a chicken earlier, to the ferocious Kappa standing and breathing heavily in front of her. "Maybe Ponchi and Konchi's idea wouldn't be so bad after all…"

She slowly turned to her opposite direction and ran away as fast as she could. Tamao thought that the Kappa would just leave her alone, but it did the exact opposite as it chased her down the roads.

"SOMEONE HELP!" Tamao yelled with tears of fright streaming down her eyes as she frantically ran away from the Kappa. For a monster that has a giant carapace on its back, it sure runs very fast.

"I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS!" she ran across the tightly closed houses and past a few random monsters that failed to notice her because of her speed. The Kappa was just a few meters away from her. Tamao found a skateboard on the sidewalk; she didn't have enough time to think, so she got on and sped away. There was only one little problem: she doesn't know how to ride one.

"Ahhh!" She didn't care right now, she just wanted to get away from the Kappa which was still chasing her. One foot was on the skateboard and the other was pushing forward.

She pushed forward and stopped for awhile after looking at the downhill road. She gulped, but right now, she just pushed forward and went downhill. "AHHH!" She sat down and gripped the skateboard tightly as if it were a loge. The Kappa followed behind her, using his shell to slide down with the same velocity as Tamao.

"Of all the people to chase, why does it have to be me? Of all the monsters to run in to, why was it the Kappa?" Tamao shouted in fright as she continued going down hill, going faster each second. Realizing that the skateboard would be the death of her instead of the Kappa, she abandoned it and ran away while the Kappa was still busy sliding down the hill.

* * *

She took a few turns, loops, and she finally managed to reach the playground. The Kappa was nowhere in sight, but just to make sure it won't spot her, she used her remaining energy and climbed up a tree. Tamao rested on the branch of the big tree and caught her breath. She curled up on the tree, held her legs with her two arms, and rested her head on them.

"I am such a coward…" Tamao said in between sobs. "No wonder I'm always an apprentice…I'm always scared; I'm too soft and too weak to fight back." All these negative thoughts started flowing her mind.

Her thinking was interrupted when the tree she was on trembled violently. She looked down to see the Kappa shaking the tree and even attempting to climb it. "Leave me alone!" Tamao held tightly to the branch of the tree which was starting to break due to the shaking.

The branch she held on finally snapped due to the force and she landed on the ground with a thud, the heavy branch pinned her leg down, making her unable to move. The Kappa went closer and closer with its beak half open, its eyes wide open, and its muscles flexing involuntarily.

"Someone…please help me…" Tamao cried, hoping someone would hear her, but she was too scared right now to amplify her voice. Struggling from the weight on her leg didn't help for she couldn't lift it even with her two hands. "HELP!"

"Pick on someone else you water imp!" a voice called out, accompanied by a cucumber flying towards the Kappa. When the cucumber landed on the ground, the Kappa immediately ignored Tamao and went down to pick the cucumber carefully so as not to spill the water from its head.

"Ponchi, Konchi, you came back!" Tamao said happily as she wiped away her tears. Ponchi broke the branch in half to lessen the weight while Konchi continued throwing his last remaining cucumbers at the Kappa.

"Come on Tamao, we can't leave a chicken out in the open and let it get butchered by a water imp!" Ponchi teased. The Tamao came back and gave a punch to Ponchi, sending him flying to the tree where she fell from. At least Tamao was acting like her usual self again, but it was all washed away when he saw the Kappa gobbling up all the cucumbers tossed to him in one bite.

"I think we'd better get out of here before I run out of ammo!" Konchi said as he threw his last cucumber at the Kappa. "I'm all out of ideas!"

The fox ran behind Tamao together with his raccoon friend while the Kappa continued eating the cucumbers hungrily.

It finished the last produce and turned to face the three. "I've got another idea!" Ponchi said as he whispered his idea to Konchi. Tamao saw both of them laugh mischievously and it wasn't a good sign for the Kappa and her.

The two spirits ran in front of Tamao and their backs faced the Kappa. "Take this you overgrown turtle!" They took a deep breath and released gas; the Kappa covered its nose in disgust and waited for the air to dilute the foul stench.

"That's so disgusting!" Tamao covered her mouth and nose and tried to fan away the stench. She grabbed half of the branch that was on her foot awhile ago and pounded the two to the ground. "You two are so vulgar!"

"Hey, at least we had an idea!" Ponchi said, with swirls in his eyes and his partners'.

"You just made it angrier!" Tamao shouted while the Kappa fanned away some of the stench. The foul stench was blown away by the wind; when the monster opened its eyes, it found out that everyone was gone. It growled furiously as it sniffed the air and tried to find the scent of its victim who was none other than Tamao Tamamura.

Three streets away from the playground, the three started running away.

"This is hopeless…" Tamao dropped to her knees beside a lamp post. "I'm just too scared to do anything right…"

"Hey, don't cry you big baby!" Konchi said.

"It won't help you at all!" Ponchi continued, so Tamao's tears turned in to soft sobs.

"If you keep running away from what you're afraid off, then you'll never be brave!"

"Why are you so afraid of it anyway? Okay, so Konchi and I were afraid of it at first, but then we realized there's nothing to be afraid of, since he can't hurt ghosts like us! Anyway, we came back because we knew you were in danger, but not without cucumbers!"

"We may be vulgar and green minded, but we have a heart which can drive us to do reckless things just to protect someone!"

"Ponchi's point? Turn your fear around three hundred sixty degrees and kick that Kappa's butt, er…carapace!"

They were suddenly interrupted when the Kappa jumped in front of them. Tamao was shaking in fear, but her fox and raccoon spirits were just smiling at the Kappa mischievously.

Tamao started thinking, why was she afraid of the Kappa? Was it because of its scary appearance and because it looked tough? She never knew what the monster was capable of doing, so she was really afraid. Who can blame her? Most people are afraid of something that is new to them, but they must learn to gather all their courage to find out what they are up against in order to discover and face their fears.

A kappa, it was a monster which has a very vulnerable weakness and she was busy being nervous about its appearance that it didn't even stop to think of a way to take advantage of its weakness. Tamao's negative thoughts interfered with her thinking; and if she were not being pessimistic and scared in the first place, then this monster would have been beaten already.

Tamao opened her eyes and saw Ponchi and Konchi distracting the Kappa as if they were just playing with him. They were so full of confidence because they discovered that this monster was no match for them because they cannot be touched by it. "Why was I afraid of the Kappa in the first place?" she thought back and realized that it was silly to get scared of this monster. For all she knew, she could just have made the Kappa trip in order to spill the water from its head.

"I am not afraid of you anymore!" Tamao's voice and eyes were full with confidence; she stood up to face the Kappa. "I may not be as strong and as brave as Master Yoh or the rest, but I know that I can be brave enough to defend myself and those whom I care for!"

Kappa moved its arms in a strange manner and fired a stream of water as powerful as a rocket at Tamao. "Ponchi, oversoul!" the raccoon entered her Planchette, forming a medium sized shield which was enough to protect her from the strong force.

The monster growled at its own failed attempt to attack and charged her. Tamao used her shield to block the Kappa's tackle; it defended her, but she was slowly being pushed back by the Kappa.

"Konchi, do something!" Tamao yelled.

"I'm on it!" he sidestepped at the Kappa's right side and kicked its waist. It immediately stopped pushing Tamao back in order to relieve the pain in his side.

"Now's our chance, Konchi oversoul!" Ponchi immediately got out of her weapon and Konchi replaced him. Now Tamao's weapon was a bow gun with Konchi's head acting as the tip and it's tail as an arrow.

The Kappa was now finished relieving the pain from his waist so it went to attack Tamao. Her reflexes allowed her to dodge unharmed and Ponchi unexpectedly jumped in front of the Kappa and covered its face. "How do you like that you monkey headed turtle?"

The irritated Kappa couldn't see and he couldn't get Ponchi off of his face either. The Kappa's sudden movements spilled some of the water on it's head, slowing down its movement each time.

"I have an idea!" while Ponchi was distracting the Kappa, Tamao ran and bent down when she was at the Kappa's lower body. She did a sweep kick to the Kappa's ankle in order to trip it. The Kappa fell down on its carapace and spilled all the water on his head. It was now weak and defenseless, not to mention completely harmless.

"Time to do it!" Tamao aimed her weapon at the Kappa. "Love Strike!" Tamao fired, Konchi's tail shot out of the bow gun; Ponchi got off the Kappa's face and jumped away to avoid the attack. When the Kappa opened its eyes, the arrow hit and pierced it at its heart.

The Kappa wailed loudly and broke like glass in to a million tiny lights and disappeared. Konchi left the medium and Ponchi rejoined the two. "We did it, we did it, we defeated the Kappa!" Tamao jumped in joy accompanied by Ponchi and Konchi.

They suddenly turned their attention when they saw a vermillion stone emerge when all the tiny white lights disappeared. "Is this what the stone looks like?" Tamao reached for the stone; its color changed from vermillion to orange. "Fear…" Tamao read a small writing inscribed in the stone which was fading and changing in to something else. "Courage…"

"Way to go Tamao!" Ponchi and Konchi cheered. Tamao took out a yellow talisman, its color changed to brown and she tossed it in the air. The talisman shot high up in the air and quickly floated to where Jun was right now.

"So Tamao, what do we do now?" Konchi asked. "Do you want to follow the talisman and go back to Jun?"

Tamao looked up at the night sky and the talisman; she slowly shook her head and opened her eyes. "Let's try to find more stones; I think I'm up for it."

Her two spirits gave her a wide smile as they started walking. "So, where did you get the cucumbers anyway?"

"We saw a bag of groceries along the streets and found a lot of cucumbers, the owner probably ran away cause of the monsters, hehehehe" Ponchi answered while the three of them walked away from the lamp post which was flickering on and off.

* * *

"Just goes to show that even cowards can be brave at times…" Hao was just observing Tamao from atop a building. "That's one stone down…" Hao looked at the talisman that Tamao tossed up, floating towards Jun. "…and seventeen more to go…"

Hao smiled and turned his attention to another one of Yoh's friends. "Let's see how he'll do when he's against a monster…"

HHHHH

Chapter one down! How did you guys like it?

If you're wondering how the story will go, well here it is. Each character has a chapter of its own. I drew lots in order to arrange the character chapters, and it seems Tamao was lucky number one! So I wonder who's next on our list?

Finally, my exam's over. I hope my one week of studying will pay off. I'll be receiving the results on January (so long!) and I hope I pass. Thanks for the support guys!


	3. Petite Or Garganutan?

Okay, so lucky number two was Manta. Hope you guys like it, every character has his/her own chapter. Guess what monster he's up against. Please please please review.

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Chapter 3: Petite or Gargantuan?

"No monsters yet…" Manta just wanted to have an ordinary Halloween, but this was not what he meant by ordinary. He wasn't afraid of ghosts anymore, ever since he met Yoh. Monsters, he was afraid of them now because they are tangible after all and they can hurt others.

"What's wrong Manta?" Mosuke materialized beside him. "You look scared, don't worry, I'm here to protect you."

"Thanks Mosuke…" The blacksmith decided to go with Manta so that he can fight back in case monsters attack. There was only one problem, since Manta is not a shaman, he can't integrate with him and it would drain his energy if he used oversoul. They had no choice anyway; Manta said he'd rather get his energy drained than dying while not even trying to fight back.

Manta can't decide anymore whether to find a monster was a good thing or a bad thing. It's safe to say it's fifty-fifty in Manta's case. "If I see a monster, then I'll decide whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. There are a lot of monsters roaming the streets; heck, one will probably jump out right in front of me.

Not long enough, Manta heard a loud grunt. He looked around to see where it came from; it was coming from the roof beside the grocery store. A big figure suddenly jumped of the building and it was headed straight for Manta. He dashed a few feet away from the monster's landing point to avoid it. "I said in front of me, not on top of me!"

Manta turned around to look at the monster that almost made him into a pancake. "Oh my…" Manta looked up at the giant monster; a giant gorilla-like monster with white fur, two big horns, and sharp incisors.

"Of all the monsters to run into, it had to be a Yeti…" Manta said awkwardly while trying his best to calm himself down. "How can someone as small as me beat someone as big as him?"

"You were able to hammer Zenki and Kouki to the ground during the shaman fight, so I believe you can do it to this gigantic monster!" Mosuke said confidently.

The yeti growled loudly while the two were talking. It was a warning sign for the two which clearly says: If you're just going to talk and not do anything, I'm going to maim you right here and right now.

"I think I'm going to have another seizure…" Manta said, slurring his words while the Yeti grunted in front of him.

"Have it later!" Mosuke said quickly. "You can either start running or start fighting; fainting or playing dead is an option which I won't allow!"

"Does it look like I have a choice?" Manta quickly grabbed a small mallet from his backpack. It's a small weapon, but it can be deadly and gigantic if Mosuke were in it. "Mosuke, sp…"

The yeti suddenly grabbed Manta's tiny body using one of his massive hands. "Let go of me you giant hairy gorilla!" Manta started whacking the mallet at the Yeti's hand. He completely forgot that his oversoul was interrupted and that he was whacking the Yeti with a small mallet.

Manta's eye twitched when he realized what he was doing. The Yeti felt like it was being bitten by a red ant over and over again. It forcefully took the tiny mallet from Manta's hand; it was only the size of a toothpick when held by the Yeti's hand.

It growled loudly in front of the frightened midget's face. "You know…you may want to brush once in a while…" his face was now filled with waterfalls of sweat drops. The yeti sniffed the mallet, used it as a toothpick, and ate it in one bite. Manta gulped because it looked like he was next on its menu.

"Can't end like this, can't end like this, it can't end like this!" Manta said repetitively as the Yeti started bringing the midget closer to its mouth while ignoring the little kicks hitting him.

The Yeti suddenly stopped and growled in pain, letting Manta go. "Huh?" Manta landed on the ground and saw electric sparks on his fur. "Mosuke?" The blacksmith ghost entered his laptop and gave the Yeti an electric shock.

"Run!" Manta yelled as he scampered away from the yeti who was still recovering from a literal shock. The yeti saw him running away; it pounded its chest like a gorilla and started chasing him.

"Is it gone yet?" Manta asked Mosuke who was floating beside him. Mosuke looked back and was surprised that the yeti was still chasing them. "WAHH!"

Manta turned to the next corner and ran as fast as he could. "Is it still chasing me?" Manta ran a few meters away from the corner street he came from. Mosuke couldn't see any signs of the yeti just yet.

The midget slowed down a bit to catch his breath. "How the heck can a small person like me beat a gigantic yeti like…" As if on cue, the Yeti jumped off the roof and in front of Manta. "…THAT!"

The Yeti towered before the tiny blonde and looked down on him. It kicked Manta away as if he was just a doll before he could even scurry away. Manta hit the cement wall and landed on the ground.

"Manta, are you alright?" Moskue asked worriedly.

"I'm fine…" Manta said sarcastically while his eye twitched. "My back doesn't hurt at all!"

Manta snapped out of it when he saw the Yeti carrying a bicycle and tossing it at him. Manta crawled to the left and avoided the attack in time. Manta's eyes widened when he saw the Yeti running towards him.

The Yeti clasped his hands together to pound Manta. He lightly punched his back and jumped aside before the Yeti smashed him to bits. The yeti's attack broke the cement ground much to Manta and Mosuke's surprise.

The Yeti faced the ghost and the petite; he snorted at Manta and pounded his fists on his chest while growling. It them showed its fangs and towered it self over Manta.

"Hey Mosuke…" Manta said. "I think he's calling me a weakling…"

"I didn't hear him talk at all Manta" Mosuke looked confused.

"Well, what he's doing in front of me…" Manta said. "I think he's showing that it is more superior than me…"

"MANTA LOOK OUT!" Manta looked up and saw the Yeti about to pounce on him. He rolled forward quickly and avoided the attack.

"How can a peep squeak like me beat him? HOW?" Manta was so frightened that he couldn't even think properly.

"You can beat him Manta, just believe in yourself!" Mosuke felt helpless as he watched Manta dodge and try to run away from the Yeti. "It won't stop coming after you unless you beat him! You have to believe in yourself! What happened to the Manta who lifted the spirits of the shamans who were fighting to avenge Yoh's death? You taught them that they can't beat their opponents if they don't use this" Mosuke put his transparent hand on his own chest. "This is what matters when fighting, not your size, not your power, but by the size and power of your heart. Your heart will drive you to excel in things you never even thought of excelling in!"

Mosuke's speech actually got him to think for the first time ever since the Yeti chased him. He thought back during the time they were fighting Hao; it didn't matter to them if Hao was more powerful, they were all determined to beat him and avenge Yoh. They didn't let Hao underestimate them and they didn't let fear stand in the way. If he was able to hurt Zenki and Kouki and give the guys one of those "inspirational speeches", then he can also beat this Yeti, all he had to do was stand up and fight.

"I'm going to teach this gargantuan that size does not matter!" Manta said as he ran past the yeti under its legs. He ran to a corner and found what he was looking for, a weapon. "This will have to do in the mean time. Mosuke, Spirit Ball Mode, Oversoul in to the iron pipe!"

Manta stood a few meters away from the big foot, clutching a bo-staff with both hands. The little guy ran up to the giant who in turn was charging towards him. The Yeti missed him when he used his bo-staff to jump over the creature. He landed behind the Yeti and literally swept him off his feet when he did a sweeping attack to the Yeti's ankles.

The Yeti fell down on the ground with a very loud thud, enough to cause an earthquake with magnitude two. "Okay, its time to deliver the final attack!" Manta jumped up in the air and was ready to strike. The yeti quickly rolled to its side to avoid the attack.

The ground shook slightly when Manta stroked the ground. The Yeti grabbed Manta by the foot, lifted him upside down, and roared at him. Manta flinched for a short while. An idea suddenly came to him; he used his bo-staff to jab the Yeti's stomach.

The yeti fell to its knees and dropped Manta to clutch its abdomen. He used this chance to back away a few feet away from the Yeti and regain concentration. Manta took a deep breath and jumped up in the air. The bo-staff started flaming up as he fell towards the target. "MAGNUM BASH!" When Manta was directly a few inches above the Yeti, he attacked with his fiery bo-staff and hit the Yeti's head. The force was so strong that the Yeti roared loudly before breaking up in to a tiny million bright lights.

Panting, Manta fell back on the ground and Mosuke left oversoul. "Are you alright Manta?"

"Yeah…I'm…I'm…fine…" Manta said while trembling on the ground. The oversoul, the running, and the fight drained half of his energy.

"Manta, look!" Mosuke pointed to where they finished the Yeti. As the white lights started disappearing in to the air, they saw a stone floating and settling itself on the ground.

The stone floated to Manta's hand and it was glowing from dark to light. "Inferior…" Manta read. The stone's color changed from dark green to emerald green; the word on the stone also changed. "…Superior." Manta smiled as he crawled on a bench and plopped down on it. "I'm gonna rest for awhile till I gain some of my energy, then we'll be back in action Mosuke." Mosuke smiled at Manta who tossed a once yellow talisman into the air. It turned brown and it returned to its previous owner.

"Don't worry Manta…" Mosuke said as the small boy slowly dozed off for awhile. "…I'll just wake you up if I see any monsters…"

* * *

Hao's eyes averted from the flying talisman to the midget who was now asleep. "Hmm…even if he's not a shaman, he's able to use oversoul." He observed Mosuke watching and standing guard for any monsters that try to attack. "Perhaps that's why Yoh is so attached to his so called best friend, or perhaps I'm wrong…"

"Anyway…he is still a human…" Hao's eyes gleamed evilly under the moonlight. "…and all humans and weak shamans will die…"

HHHHH

Guys, I hope all of you know what a yeti is, a.k.a abominable snowman or Sasquatch?

This is for all the Manta fans. I noticed that Manta is always seen as the extra character, so I gave him a chapter of his own. I'm not a big fan of this character, but I had fun writing the chapter anyway.

There's a moral to the story: do not swallow a toothpick that you used to clean your teeth. It's like saying do not swallow the water that you just gargled, yuck! Oh and size doesn't matter when you blah, blah, blah, blah, you know what I mean and you know the moral, need I explain?

So who's lucky number three? If your expecting your fav character in the next chapter but didn't see him/her, then wait a little longer, and I'll say it one again, every character present in the first chapter will have a chapter dedicated to them.

Let me give you a little spoiler too, after all the characters get a chapter dedicated to them, I'll also dedicate a chapter to four lucky couples, so guess who.


	4. Freak Of Nature

…and lucky number three is…someone who you'll have to find out by yourself soon! Zank you vely mush fo de reviews (Thank you very much for the reviews, in case you guys didn't get it).

If the fic's going too fast, I'm very sorry. Since each character gets his or her own chapter, that means there won't be any scene shifting, except for Hao's part. Sorry again if the pace is too fast, I'll try to slow it down a bit. So on with the fic!

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Chapter 4: Freak of Nature

A loud hiss resonated in the air; the monster crawled silently to find the victim it was chasing just awhile ago. Out of all the victims it found and turned to stone, this particular victim was the most stubborn one. The monster sensed that he was near, it just didn't know where exactly. The snakes on the monster's head rattled as it crawled on its snake like body.

The blue haired shaman stood stiffly and still behind a mailbox which was conveniently beside a trash can, a lamp post, and a fire hydrant. The monster was slowly approaching the spot in front of his hiding place. Horohoro only had one shot at this because one mistake could either poison him to death or turn him in to stone.

'Five, four, three…' he counted silently in his head, keeping his eyes closed. '…two, one!'

He rolled out of his hiding place with his eyes still closed in front of the monster. "ICE WALL!" Horohoro punched his oversouled snowboard on the ground and an ice wall appeared before him. The monster took one quick glance at the wall and saw its own reflection. Its eyes widened and its scream was ear piercing for it accidentally turned itself into stone by looking at itself.

When it was fully petrified, Horohoro removed the ice wall between them; without opening his eyes, he used his snowboard to feel around and see if the monster was there.

"Nipoppo Punch!" with one quick blow, he shattered the monster into a million tiny lights. When Horohoro sensed that it was safe to open his eyes, he lifted his eyelids and looked around. When he saw that the only remaining thing in front of him were tiny white lights, he smiled in victory. "Take that Medusa! I'm the only one who does the freezing around here!" He looked around, but to his disappointment, there wasn't a stone.

"Oh man…that was the fifth monster I destroyed yet no stone!" Horohoro sat down on a bench and Kororo left his snowboard. "There's gotta be more than a hundred monsters in this town, how are we gonna find the stones? We've got an eighteen out of a hundred chances…" Kororo floated beside him and tugged his shirt. His face formed a smile, "Don't worry Kororo, we'll find a stone even if it means beating more than a dozen monsters."

Kororo smiled as he watched Horohoro stand up and stretch up. They both heard a growl from somewhere, so Horohoro grabbed his snowboard and looked around. Strangelly, no one was there; but when a rumbling sound came about, Horohoro felt his stomach. "Oh man, I'm starving…I haven't eaten dinner yet…it's already a quarter to eight…" he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the clock inside a store. "7:45 already? That means I'm gonna have to quicken my pace!"

He walked and looked around for monsters, but his stomach was making him lose his concentration. "I'm too hungry to walk!" he put his snowboard down and sat on it while his stomach continued to rumble. Kororo looked around to see if she can help her starving master.

Kororo floated away, Horohoro was too busy daydreaming about an all you can eat buffet. "Hey, where are you taking me?" a voice from the other corner of the street said. Horohoro heard the sound from the corner, but he also smelled food. Sweet, delicious, and mouthwatering food. He rubbed his eyes and saw Kororo; she was floating in front of someone and she was leading that someone to Horohoro.

It was a boy about Horohoro's age. A young black haired lad carrying a plastic bag in his hands; he saw Horohoro lying down on his snowboard. "Hey, are you alright?" The boy ran to Horohoro's side with Kororo following from behind. "Hey, talk to me!"

He put his hands on the ainu's shoulder and shook him lightly. Horohoro opened his eyes and sniffed the air. "I…I smell food, so hungry…"

"Hungry?" the boy took out five boxes of rise he got from a Chinese restaurant. "Here, you can have these…" Immediately, Horohoro sat up and gobbled down all the contents of the five boxes of rice, each prepared differently.

A loud burp was all Kororo and the boy needed to hear to know that he's going to be just fine. "Thanks a lot, you're a life saver! Err, sorry I ate your food…"

"No problem…just glad you're alright…" the boy stood up and held out his hand to help Horohoro up. "The name's Akimaru, nice to meet you…"

"Horohoro, thanks again for the food" he said gratefully as he shook Akimaru's hand. "Are you a shaman too?"

"Yes I am, and I'm guessing that she's your main spirit" Akimaru said as Kororo floated beside Horohoro. "This is my main spirit, cobra" the spirit materialized beside Akimaru; it was a ninja like spirit wearing a cobra headgear which also had a tail. Horohoro's spine shivered a bit when he saw the cobra headgrear. "Anything wrong Horohoro?"

"Nah, it's nothing…" Horohoro rubbed the back of his head. "I just ran in to a medusa a little earlier."

"I see…" Akimaru said. "I just came from the other town and when I heard that monsters were attacking Funbari, I rushed here immediately to find out if my family's alright.

"Oh I see…" Horohoro said. "Sorry for delaying you and for eating your food. You'd better get to your family quick and make sure they're safe.

Akimaru nodded his head and ran to the direction of his house. "See you Horohoro, next time, I'll treat you to lunch!"

"Cool! Thanks a lot Akimaru!" he waved goodbye to his new friend who disappeared in the streets. "Okay Kororo, we'd better get going and find at least one stone…" Horohoro picked up his board and walked down the streets to see if the next monster he'll find will have a stone in it.

* * *

"Here's an interesting monster for that ainu to play with" Hao looked at monster walking towards the direction where Horohoro was going to be located in just a few steps. "Let's see if he can still think about eating after his encounter with this monster."

"Let's see who's going to be the victor…"

* * *

"Hey Kororo, do you smell something?" Horohoro and his main spirit stopped for awhile and sniffed the air. "Eww, smells like raw sewage!"

The two of them heard a slurring grumble resonate from the corner. "It looks like it's another monster; a stinky one in fact!" The monster's shadow could now be seen from the corner it was humungous. It crawled out from the building corner facing sideways. Horohoro and Kororo covered their noses because the pungent smell was too much. They were now facing a monster with no shape and form; in fact, it looked like melted clay.

"Don't you ever take a bath you oversized blob?" Horohoro asked. He pulled down his headband to cover his nose. The green muck ignored the shaman and went straight ahead, passing through the street sign. The ainu and the kororo observed the blob as it crawled to the street sign, as if it weren't there; the street sign entered the monster's mud like body. When the blob crawled away from where the street sign was located previously, they both saw that there was no more street sign, only a bubbling puddle and a trail of slime. "That's one disgusting acidic blob if I've ever seen; I don't think I'm going to be able to eat until later."

The acidic blob ignored the shaman and continued crawling ahead. "Hey stinky, don't ignore your opponent!" The blob stopped dead in its tracks and turned it's head to Horohoro, revealing one big yellow eye with a green pupil. "Now that I've got your attention, you're going down! Kororo, spirit ball mode, Oversoul in to the Ikapusi!" Horohoro integrated Kororo to the ikapusi Pirika gave him as a good luck charm before the shaman fight; the ikapusi now turned into a sharp blue sword, a weapon that Yoh could most likely use if he didn't have the Harusame.

"ICE BLADE SLASH!" Horohoro ran towards the blob, jumped up and slashed it in the middle with his extended ice blade. Horohoro grinned as he landed on the ground while the blob spilt in to two and melted on the ground. "Looks like there isn't a stone inside this walking sewage…"

Horohoro then noticed something strange, the blob's body did not shatter and turn into tiny white lights, which meant it wasn't dead yet. He gripped his ice blade with both hands as he watched the two halves of the blob rejoin. The acidic blob opened its eye when it rejoined and growled at Horohoro, sending out a few droplets of acid. The droplets splashed on the ground and melted the concrete sidewalk a bit. "What kind of monster is this?"

"GLACIER PILLAR!" Horohoro planted his sword to the ground and called forth sharp glaciers from the ground. It pierced the monster and split it into a million tiny balls of sludge. The ice pillars melted because they were smothered with acidic blob droplets. The small droplets gathered in together in the middle and reformed the giant acidic blob. "Man, when I split you up into a million pieces, remain split up into a tiny million pieces!"

The blob took in a deep breath and fired acidic balls from its body. "ICE WALL!" Horohoro's sword, which was still planted on the ground, formed an ice wall in front of himself before an acid ball could hit him. The wall melted and he saw the blob crawling towards him with its hands on the air, ready to grab him when the ainu was near, fortunately for him, the monster was slow.

"Kororo, Spirit Ball Mode, into the snowboard!" Horohoro transferred Kororo from the ikapusi to his snowboard, realizing that slashing the monster into many pieces won't work. "Let's try this!" Horohoro froze the street and made a path leading to a wall. Horohoro sled behind the blob, he used a strong wind from his snowboard to blow the monster to the icy path he made. The monster slid on the icy path and came crashing to a wall, leaving a very big splat mark.

He gasped when he saw the monster fall down from the wall and regain its original shape. "Arrgghhh! Why won't anything work? Think, think, think, that's it! I saw this in a movie once!" Horohoro shot up in the air using the cold air from his snowboard. "FROST WIND!" He loomed over the acidic blob and froze it slowly using the subzero air. He landed safely on the ground and smiled. "That oughta hold it in place!"

Horohoro's eyes widened when he saw the monster melting the ice. "Dude…" Horohoro panicked and thought that if he broke the still frozen blob, it would remain broken and it would finally dissolve into tiny white lights. "NIPOPPO PUNCH!" He broke the frozen blob into a tiny million pieces and breathed heavily; this had better work because he was running out of ideas. He looked at the pieces in awe because they did not turn into white lights nor reveal a stone. Instead, it melted the ice and the tiny acid droplets gathered in the middle and formed a gigantic blob. "You've gotta be kidding!" Horohoro fell on his knees as he saw the monster roaring after breaking free; it seemed as if the ainu's attacks didn't affect, damage, or hurt it even just a bit.

The blob started crawling towards the shocked shaman, who was still not moving. Luckily for him, his snowboard was still strapped to his feet, so Kororo sped away and retreated.

* * *

"I guess that monster is too much for Horohoro…" Hao watched him ride his snowboard away from the blob. "Let's see if he'll come back for it."

* * *

Horohoro sat down and leaned on the door of a store, beside it was a fruit stand. Kororo left the snowboard and looked at his master. "What's wrong? Why won't that stubborn monster just die?" Horohoro slammed his fist on the ground, Kororo backed away a bit, but she floated slowly towards him after.

"Okay, I just need to think of another plan…think, think…" Horohoro put his head in his hands, trying to think of a way to defeat the acidic blob. "I can't use giant oversoul! There's no way the monster can stand…" Horohoro saw Kororo shaking her head sideways slowly. "Oh…I see…" If he would use giant oversoul in this city, he would certainly cause a lot of damage to city property, not to mention the hundreds of people who will discover the power of shamans.

Horohoro banged the back of his head on the door and rested his head on his knees. "I'm all out of ideas…it's useless…I'm not as smart as the others, I can't think of a plan good enough to beat this one monster, or maybe I'm just not powerful enough, is that it?"

He kept on scolding himself for not being able to beat this one single monster. He was able to beat tougher shamans, he was one of the strongest shamans, so why couldn't he beat it? He finally stopped thinking, it seemed hopeless. "Maybe I'll just leave it along and make someone else beat it."

Kororo tugged his shirt and looked at him with sad eyes, this wasn't the Horohoro she knew. Kororo started speaking to Horohoro in a language only the ainu tribe could understand. She pointed to her head, "I see…" Horohoro smiled. "Strength is not the only factor in fighting. Okay Kororo, I'll give it another try, I won't back out." She smiled and floated around him happily.

Horohoro lifted his hand from the ground to stand up, but then he felt something. He rubbed two of his fingers together to feel it somemore. "Dust…" He suddenly had a flashback. He remembered that he was absent for school one day and Tamao volunteered to teach him the new lesson. _'Table salt is different from the salt formed by combining acids and bases. Salt is neutral because acid and base neutralize each other. An example of something acidic is vinegar and an example of something baice is…'_

"That's it Kororo!" He stood up and left the place. "I've got an idea, but I need some help…"

* * *

Horohoro looked around for the blob, still no sign of it, and he was already able to defeat two more monsters, unfortunately with no stones in them. "Here blob…here blob…" He suddenly felt something slippery beneath his feet. "Yuck! Oh, wait…this is the trail that monster leaves!" He followed it and saw the monster slowly crawling away, not caring what stood in its way.

"Hey you! Over here!" Horohoro fired a few ice daggers to get its attention. The blob turned to Horohoro and crawled as fast as it can to him. "Can't you go any faster you mass of raw sewage?" Horohoro kept tauting so that it would go faster. The blob didn't let go of the chance to fire a few acid balls, which Horohoro was able to block fortunately for him.

Horohoro ran ahead to check on his plan. "Are you done yet Akimaru?"

Akimaru emptied another can of powder on the canopy of a recently abandoned fruit stand. "All done Horo!"

"Right!" Horohoro punched his snowboard to the ground and made three ice walls which were perpendicularly adjacent to each other. He hopped on his snowboard and slid behind the acidic blob. The monster didn't need to turn, for all it had to do was transfer its big yellow eye to its back. "BLIZZARD SHOCKWAVE!" A powerful icy wind blew the monster to the trap intended for it. It kept sliding and leaving a trail of slime until it stopped when it hit the ice corner that Horohoro made earlier.

"Stone Barrier!" Akimaru jumped off the canopy, place his oversouled weapon on the ground and formed a wall to trap the blob. Now the monster was in a small sealed room without a roof.

Horohoro snowboarded to the monster and used an icy wind as a force to jump up on to the canopy. "Kororo! In to the Ikapusi!" Kororo quickly transferred from the snowboard to the wooden charm. "ICE BLADE SLASH!" The ainu slashed the canopy in half, making all the powder on the acidic blob which was trapped in an almost melted cage.

The acidic blob tried desperately to escape as the powder fell on him. Its body was already bubbling and dissolving into tiny white lights as it frantically thrashed. It trashed and trashed until it was no more; it was a good thing too since the walls have already melted. "Alright!" Horohoro jumped up.

"Thanks for the help buddy!" Horohoro said as the tiny white light remains of the monster disappeared. "Hey, is that…?" Horohoro walked to a shining dark blue stone which emerged just as soon as all the white lights disappeared. He picked it up and read the small writing on it. "Inanity…" the glowing stone turned from a darker shade to a lighter one while the word on the stone changed, "Wisdom…"

"Is that what you are looking for?" Akimaru walked towards him and looked over at Horohoro's shoulder to see what he was holding.

"Yup…" Horohoro smiled, pocketed the light blue stone, pulled out a yellow talisman from his pocket, and tossed it in the air. It turned brown and flew across the night sky towards Jun, wherever she is. "Thanks so much for your help and for finding me some baking soda."

"No problem buddy…" Akimaru patted his shoulder. "I have to say, it was pretty smart of you to remember that acid is neutralized by base. Are you an ace student or something?"

Horohoro shook his head sideways and smiled. "Nope, I'm just a regular shaman with a regular IQ. It's just something that I learned from a very good friend of mine."

"I see…" Akimaru smiled back. "Well, good luck in whatever you're doing; I have to get home soon. If you need any help, you know where to find me!"

"Okay, bye and thanks again!" Horohoro waved at Akimaru who fled to the distance to his home. Kororo floated beside him and sat on his shoulder. "Let's go Kororo, we have more monsters to find." Horohoro place his snowboard on his back and started walking, but he immediately stopped when his stomach started rumbling. "Uh oh…" Horohoro quickly turned around and ran to the direction where Akimaru went. "Akimaru! I'm hungry! You have anymore food?"

* * *

Hao smiled at the Horohoro who was running, rather, trying to chase his new friend. "Even after a battle like this, I would have guessed that he wouldn't eat, but I guess I was wrong. Horokei Usui can be very unpredictable once in a while…"

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See? Horohoro is not stupid all the time, yey! I'm glad you guys are still reading. So don't forget to review! I had to rush everything because this fic has an update schedule. Like I said, it is a Halloween fic.


	5. A Spar To Remember

Thanks for the reviews! I rushed this one too, but I think its good enough. I hope you guys like it!

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Chapter 5: A Spar To Remember

Tao Ren jumped over the monster and landed behind it. The monster was too late when it tried to turn around because Ren had just slashed it in half crosswise. The monster moved another inch before its thousand year old bandages fell to the ground along with its dusty rotted body. It broke into up into tiny lights after falling on the cold hard concrete sidewalk.

"Too easy…" Ren waited and watched the white lights disappear. A stone did not reveal itself to the Chinese shaman, so he placed his family's sword back in his sheath and went the opposite direction hoping to find a monster with a stone in it. "I have already defeated at least ten monsters and still no sign of the stone!"

Ren continued walking, showing no signs of tiredness. He fought the ten monsters without Bason's help because he said that the monsters were weak and that he needed to conserve his energy. The monster he just fought recently was a thousand year old Egyptian mummy, no different from the other monsters he fought before him. "Bason, what time is it?"

Bason floated upwards and looked around for a street clock. He found one and it read 8:00 pm, he returned to Ren and reported afterwards. "We have to hurry up Master Ren, we only have four hours left."

"You don't have to tell me to hurry up because I do not need the extra pressure!" Ren silently walked down the streets, alert and ready for any monster attack. "Where's my horse? It would save us time if it were here. Find my horse and bring him to me!"

"What about you Master Ren?" Bason asked. "What if some monsters attack and I…"

"Oh please…these monsters are no match for me, I can beat them without using oversoul" Ren said. "What are you waiting for? Bring my horse to me, he's in the house ten streets away from the onsen; the man there was kind enough to let my horse share a stable with his other horses."

"As you wish Master Ren…" Bason floated up into the sky and away from Ren in search for his horse.

"Hmph! What a worrywart, thinks I can't handle an enemy with out his supervision…" Ren watched Bason fly away before he continued walking. A very gigantic black widow spider suddenly jumped of the roof in an attempt to attack Ren; but before it could even land on the ground, Ren jumped up to meet it and slashed it in half. It landed on the ground and shattered into white lights. To Ren's disappointment, its body contained no stone.

"Incompetent monsters…" Ren looked back and saw another shadow lurking somewhere near. "You can either show your self or run away."

"Impressive" the shadow revealed itself to Ren. The monster had the body of a black horse and the upper body resembling that of a man replaced its head. The man's head was covered by a helmet and the rest of its upper body was covered in black and silver armor. In its right hand was a javelin which was as long as Ren's Kwan do.

"So you can talk" Ren pulled out his sword. "It's a surprising characteristic especially for a monster. So are you ready to die?"

The monster chuckled a bit; it seemed erudite with its posture and laugh. "I really don't think you should under estimate us monsters. You have been killing my fellow monsters and I just can't allow you to get away with that."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Ren raised his sword. "You're destroying the city so you need to be destroyed! When I destroy you, you'd better have one of those stones in your body!"

"Foolish human!" the centaur took out his javelin. "Your arrogance will be your downfall!"

"We'll see about that!" Ren raised his hand and commanded Bason to go into Spirit Ball mode, but he forgot that he sent Bason away to fetch his horse. "I can beat you all by myself!"

"What are you talking about?" the centaur asked. "You are all alone, there is no one to help you, and that means you'll have a harder time fighting me, am I not right?"

"Nonsense, I have beaten more than ten monsters without Bason, what would make you any different from the rest?"

"Oh I assure you foolish shaman, I would be more than a match for you!"

* * *

Hao watched Horohoro wave goodbye to Akimaru after receiving some food. The glutton gobbled down the food and took a little rest before going back up to kick some monster butt.

"Nothing interesting happening yet…" Hao then turned his attention to the source of the reverberating sound of steel clashing with each other. "The Tao is fighting with centaur, one of my favorite monsters." Ren tried to lock his eye on the centaur while it circled and galloped around him. The centaur was so fast at it produced multiple images of itself. It jumped from behind Ren and kicked him to the wall.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, that shaman should listen to centaur's advice, because that monster doesn't joke around."

* * *

Bason suddenly stopped and looked back. Sensing that something must be terribly wrong he decided to turn back. "No…" he stopped himself. "I must obey master Ren's orders." He hurried to his destination without looking back.

Bason arrived at his destination. He hover around the house looking for a stable, he finally spotted Ren's giant horse. Bason called the attention of the Shaman horse. It jumped over the stable gate and into the garden.

"Who are you?" A little girl about the age of six walked out of the house and looked at Bason. "Are you a monster?"

"No I'm not a monster" he answered back politely to the young shaman girl. "I'm just here to fetch Hakuoh because Master Ren needs him."

"Okay, if big brother Ren needs him, then he can go" the little girl ran to the gate and opened it for Hakuoh to pass through.

"Thank you Mimi" Bason said as he guided the horse towards the exit.

"Okay, say 'hi' to Ren for me!" Mimi waved goodbye as she watched Hakuoh and Bason go rapidly the opposite direction.

* * *

Ren opened his eyes and looked down. He was hanging from a building's flag pole by his shirt. "Nobody hangs me on a flag pole and gets away with it!" he managed to remove his shirt from the pole and land safely on the ground.

"You seem to be having trouble you fool, I can sense it" the centaur swung its sword across Ren, but he jumped up and used one of his hands to grab on to the pole that he was hung on awhile ago.

"Nobody mocks me and lives the next day!" Ren let go and pulled out his sword. He couldn't do any techniques because Bason was not around, so he can only do the basic non-elemental ones.

The centaur parried the attack, so both Ren and it pushed against each other. "It looks like we are evenly matched."

"Evenly matched?" Ren laughed. "I am more powerful than you, there is no way you can defeat me."

"We'll see" the centaur successfully pushed Ren and kicked him aside. "I am no ordinary monster Ren. Master Hao gave me a unique ability to talk and to absorb the strength of the monsters that were slain."

"What?" Ren slowly got up and switched to his Kwan Do.

"I was destined to fight you Ren Tao, I was summoned by Master Hao." The centaur said in a hateful voice. "I was once a human, but your family has played with my corpse and attached me to the body of a dead horse as if I were a toy! Look what they did to me! When I was slain by one of your so called friends, I was sent to the forbidden realm with all the other creatures you humans proclaim as monsters, demons, a menace to the world! But now we are taking our revenge with the help of Master Hao!"

"You are stupid; Hao will betray you sooner or later if you are insignificant to him!" Ren said. "What I can see right now is that he is using you as a puppet to achieve his goal. He will abandon you whenever he feels like it!"

"Be quiet!" The centaur attacked while Ren blocked each one of its blows. "Master Hao warned me about you. He said that your words can pollute my mind if I am not careful. Your lies will not work on me!"

"Looks like Hao was able to corrupt your mind before I could then…" Ren attacked its body, and it managed to damage its armor.

Bason and Hakuoh were running towards Ren and they just arrived in a nick of time. "Don't worry Master Ren, I'm coming!"

The two opponents clashed weapons again and used their strength to push each other back. "It looks like your handicaps have arrived. I thought you can defeat me all by your self Ren, but I see that I'm wrong."

Ren looked back and saw Bason and Hakuoh stand by, awaiting for further instructions. He looked back at the centaur's bronze eyes filled with hatred. "What do you say Ren? Can you defeat me all alone, or are you as weak as to depend on others to fight beside you?"

"Master Ren!" Bason couldn't wait any longer, he was not floating to the Kwan Do, ready to oversoul.

The centaur and Ren pushed away from each other. "Stop Bason!" the spirit halted as his Master raised his hand at him. "I will handle this by myself, do not interfere!"

"…but Master Ren?" Bason argued. "Your battles are also my battles. I am your main spirit!"

"I said do not interfere Bason! My battles are not always your battles!" Ren said. "Stay back, I will finish this monster in a while! I do not want you to interrupt me, understand?" Bason hesitantly nodded and had no choice but to trust his master's decision.

The centaur smiled under it's cold iron cain and resumed his fight with Ren.

* * *

"I was right. That monster was the perfect one to go up against Ren. I was correct to pour all the dead monster's strength in to its body" Hao smiled as he watched Ren get beaten because of his emotions. "Both of them are very foolish if I say so myself. The more imprudent one will fall, do you not agree Spirit of Fire?"

* * *

"Aarrrghh!" Ren got kicked in to a wall, for the twentieth time this day by a centaur.

"Master Ren, please, this is no time to be stubborn! Order me to go in to spirit ball mode!" Bason shouted at the sidelines as he watched his Master get beaten up.

"BASON! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ren got up and did a non elemental quadruple cross slash. All it did was scratch the centaur's rough armor and slash its legs. The monster winced but it continued fighting.

The centaur smiled and gave Ren another blow. "You're probably the weakest member of the Shaman King's group of friends." The mocking only added to Ren's temper and hair growth rate.

The centaur used its hind legs and kicked Ren once again. Ren was going to hit the sharp branch of a tree, so Bason ordered Hakuoh to jump up and catch Ren on his back. Ren landed on the saddle and Hakuoh landed on the ground.

"BASON!" Ren was very angry now. "You dare disobey my orders?"

Bason looked down and said "Yes I dare. Look at yourself Master, your arrogance is taking over you! You think you have to do everything alone."

The centaur ran towards Ren, Hakuoh did his best to dodge all of the centaur's charging attacks.

"This is my battle Bason!"

"I am your main spirit Master and I am part of your weapon for battle. Don't let the centaur mock and tempt you. You know you are not weak; being weak doesn't mean you need the help of others to fight battles. You're my master, we fight together as a team, don't let your smugness get in the way."

"Are you just going to talk all day or are you going to fight?" the centaur cornered Hakuoh and tripped him, making Ren fall on the ground.

"Master Ren…" Bason could see the bangs of Ren covering his eyes; his spirit couldn't tell what he was feeling right now. "Master?"

"I'll show you what I can really do!" Ren looked up, jumped on his horse, and Bason followed. "Bason! Spirit Ball Mode, in to the Kwan Do!"

"Interesting" the centaur raised its javelin and pointed it towards Ren. "Are you ready to lose another round?"

"I'm ready for another round, but you're the one who's going to be defeated" Ren answered back as he held out a small tombstone with his free hand. "Kokutoh! In to Hakuoh!" He interrogated Bason's horse with his own horse.

"Still arrogant I see…" the centaur got ready to charge. "Let's see how well you'll do against me!"

The centaur charged forward with his javelin's tip pointing towards Ren. Ren commanded his own horse to charge towards the centaur with equal speed.

When he was close enough, he blocked the centaur's javelin and slashed his armor. Ren turned back at the same time with that of the centaur. "Golden Lightning!"

Hundreds of kinds of weapons sprouted robustly sprouted from the ground to hit the centaur. The attack broke the centaur's body armor, revealing a black muscular body. The centaur looked back and saw his armor fall and break on the ground, escaping with a few cuts and slashes from its upper body, but it's lower half was severly injured. "You said you'd defeat me your self? What happened to your pride as a Tao?"

"Looks like you're the fool now!" Ren got off Hakuoh and looked at the centaur. "You can't always let your pride get the better of you. One can do amazing things on his own, but one can do greater things if he works with others. I had to learn that lesson twice in my lifetime, so I'm going to make sure that's the last time I commit that mistake."

"Without your friends, you wouldn't even be able to defeat me! It only proves that you were weak!"

"I would prefer to call it limitations. It is sometimes good to accept your limitations; you are weak once you let your limitations stop you from improving yourself further. I find it hard to understand really, because one's own capability can be both limited and unlimited; and it looks like you've almost reached your limit centaur.

"I won't let you defeat me!" the centaur boldly charged towards Ren.

"Now your making your anger take over you. For a monster who claims to be literate, you're now acting very untamed. Hakuoh! Iron Fissure!" Hakuoh jumped up to the air and landed back on the ground and caused the cement to splash up in the air, taking the centaur along with it.

"Your time is now over. Rapid Temple!" Ren jumped on to Hakuoh and to the air. He swiftly stabbed the centaur more than a thousand times with his Kwan Do.

Ren landed on the ground and the centaur shattered in to white lights before it could even fall back down on the ground. Ren noticed an object floating amidst the white lights. He jumped up and grabbed it, it was a bronze stone. On it was written, "Pride", it glowed and changed from bronze to gold and the word was changed to, "Humility."

Ren grabbed a brown talisman and tossed it in the air. It turned yellow and returned to the Taoist priest. "Finally. Come Bason, we have more work to do." He hoped on to Hakuoh and rode down the streets, but he stopped a little later to defeat another monster.

* * *

"…one's own capability can be both limited and unlimited." Hao looked down at Ren who quickly defeated another monster. "It applies to all living things; all except me. I will be all powerful at the stroke of midnight and I'll have all the unlimited capabilities I need.

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We've just finished Ren's chapter, so I wonder who's next? Let's have a recap, so Tamao, Manta, Horohoro, and Ren each received a stone, so that means there are nine more characters left. Guess who's next, guess who's next.

Please review guys and I would really appreciate it if you guys would review each chapter.


	6. Concept Of Justice

Okay, I gotta work fast because even if my chapters are written ahead of time, I'm still not finished and I have a update schedule to follow so it would end exactly on Halloween. I had to rush this, so I'm sorry if its not that good.

Here's the next character, so did you guess correctly?

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Chapter 6: Concept Of Justice

"Arch Spirit Zelel! Finish it now!" Lyserg's former angel attacked the brown winged monster. Only ten attacks from Zelel were needed to finish the Griffin Jeanne was currently fighting. The griffin shattered in to white lights and faded away in the air. "No stone…"

Jeanne sighed, she had beaten a lot of monsters but still no stone. Zelel returned to her old X-Laws mini revolver and she put it back in the pocket of her jeans. She had to admit, being in the streets all alone at Halloween night with monsters can be scary.

Just when she had thoughts about giving up, she shook her head and looked forward. "No, I won't give up until is justice restored and the world is safe from Hao."

Walking along the streets, she followed the sound of monsters growling, wailing, roaring, and what not. She slowly reduced her walking speed when she heard a mischievous giggle from somewhere, definitely not coming from a brat who wants to play a trick on her.

When Jeanne turned around to see who or what is laughing, she suddenly stepped on a wire that she could barely see due to the dark. The next thing she knew it, a boulder coming from behind the houses catapulted itself up in the air and it was aimed directly at her. She quickly ran to another spot before the boulder would hit her. As soon as the boulder landed on the ground, thousands of tiny rocks launched into the air and targeted the area where the Iron Maiden was at right now.

Jeanne ran away from the street where it would be raining tiny meteors soon. As she ran, she heard the mischievous laugh following her; Jeanne looked up on the rooftops while she was running, she saw a tiny monster probably with the same size as Manta jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It's eyes glowed emerald green and it showed its sharp teeth at her, grinning mischievously.

She continued to run while avoiding the shower of rocks.

* * *

"The Iron Maiden Jeanne, the one who comes in third as one of my worst enemies" Hao looked at her avoiding the rocks. "That monster should take care of her."

* * *

No more raining debris, it was all clear now, but it did quite a lot of damage to the buildings in that street. "Where are you monster? Show yourself?"

"Why should I? Hehehehe!" a voice of a childish brat said, not what Jeanne expected. "So ya wanna play with me? Alright dude, but I'm telling ya that I'm no pushover like ya! Hehehehe!" the midget monster jumped off the building and landed on top of a nearby lamp post which illuminated its features.

It had three toes and three fingers both with moderately sharp claws. On its head were two yellow horns that looked like that of a unicorn's, but only shorter. It wore something similar to that of grey baggy pants, a brown shirt with torn off sleeves to make it look like a vest, and it was wearing brown half cut gloves. "Watcha lookin' at dude? Haven't ya seen an imp before? Hehehehe!" The tan colored monster wagged it's long arrow shaped tail back and forth.

"You're an imp? You certainly don't look like one!" Jeanne pulled out her mini revolver.

"Hehehehe! Just because I'm an imp, doesn't mean I have ta look like all the other ugly imps that ya humans draw on your ugly books! Hehehehe!" the imp jumped off the lamp post, but his tail grabbed on to it and pulled the monster back up. "I'm a Jinx Imp! Hehehehe!"

"A Jinx Imp? I haven't heard of that kind of monster" Jeanne aimed the revolver at the imp. The imp's green eyes glowed as it smiled mischievously at her. With a snap of its three fingers, the revolver started heating up. She couldn't help but let go of the hot gun.

"Just goes to show that ya humans lack knowledge of monsters like us! Hehehehe!" the imp jumped to the next lamp post beside the one he was previously standing on. "All imps are unique just like me! My specialty are curses and bad luck, so ya better watch out if ya know what's good for ya dude! Hehehe!"

"I don't care what kind of imp you are!" Jeanne said to it. "You and the other monsters have been causing trouble in this city; and what's worse is that you destroyed a favorite holiday of others! We will not forgive you for that injustice!"

"Hehehe! So what're ya trying to make me feel? Guilt? Ooohhh…I'm so sorry that I ruined the holiday when people dress stupidly and eat candy till their teeth ache…NOT! Hahahahaha!" the imp laughed and Jeanne looked at the monster hatefully. "So are ya a member of the Justice League and ya'll beat me up, lock me up in jail, and throw away the keys? Hahahahaha!"

"No! I am the former leader of the X-Laws and it is our duty to restore justice and defeat evil!" Jeanne picked up the mini revolver which was now moderately hot.

"Hehehe! So what does that little toy of yours do?" the imp grinned. "Does it squirt water out of the nozzle? Hahahaha!"

The Iron Maiden immediately fired a bullet before the imp could get a chance to burn the gun and damage it permanently. The bullet morphed into Zelel and it charged directly towards the imp. The imp jumped down from the lamp post and landed on all four limbs, Zelel missed the little brat. "Hehehe! You're too slow! Ya can't beat me if ya can't touch me dude! Hehehehe!"

The imp snapped its fingers; spirit chains wrapped themselves around Zelel and tied him to the ground. "Zelel!" Jeanne ran to the spirit to aid him, but the imp threw shurikens at her, causing her to fall back.

She looked back at Syamasu who was struggling to get free from the chains. "Hehehe! Looks like your main spirit's outta commission! Hehehe! Now its your turn dude! Hahahaha!" An evil laugh replaced the childish and mischievous laugh of the imp. "Boom Boom Box Kaboom!"

The imp raised its hand in the hair and slapped the ground. Jeanne looked up and saw square bombs with a Jolly Roger emblem engraved on each of its six sides. Jeanne dodged the bombs that fell, but the explosions left her with only a few scratches fortunately. The imp grinned and snapped its fingers and made a cloud appear at the end of the street. It snapped its other hand, then a stampede of giant jack in the boxes headed towards the other end of the road.

Jeanne was along the path of the stampede, so if she didn't get out of the way, she's pretty much dead. Zelel broke free from the chains and rapidly floated towards Jeanne. She grabbed on to its tail and climbed on its back; she successfully avoided the stampede, but the battle wasn't over yet. "Hehehe! Your spirit's such a party pooper!"

"Arch Angel Zelel attack!" Jeanne jumped off Zelel's back and the spirit itself delivered a punch to the imp. The monster grinned and raised it's two tiny arms and raised up a shield with a cross bone emblem on it. As soon as Zelel's punch collided with the shield, it turned in to a net and wrapped itself around Zelel. The imp jumped up and stomped once on the ground; a rubbery cage fell down from the sky and turned as hard as diamond.

"I don't wanna play with that spirit of yours just yet! Hehehe!" the imp walked towards Jeanne, who backed away slowly in response. "Hehehe! So what do we play next? Hmm…how about cars? Hehehehe!" The imp jumped on the roof of a store and snapped its fingers. Smoke suddenly puffed up from somewhere in the ground then it blew away to reveal four monster trucks. "Watcha gonna do now without your spirit, dude? Hehehehe!"

* * *

"That childish monster will fit Jeanne's personality…" Hao observed Jeanne dodging the trucks. "It's quite fun just watching the Jinx Imp play."

The Spirit of Fire observed the imp and Jeanne, there was only one thing that he didn't like about the imp, its slang.

* * *

Jeanne leaned against the wall for support, she got away with scratches, no major injuries yet. "Hehehehe! I'm bored dude! Let's play something else! I know!" With the snap of the Jinx Imp's fingers, it called fourth four giant snakes with four different colors. They looked like cartoon stuffed toys, but they seemed dangerous seeing as the imp was the one who called them.

Each of the four snakes grabbed either one of her legs or arms and pinned her against the wall. Jeanne looked up angrily at the imp. "I'm going to make you pay for treating me like some rag doll! ZELEL!"

Her inner strength allowed Zelel to break free from the cage. "Arch Angel Zelel! Oversoul in to the revolver!" Jeanne was now holding a revolver slightly bigger from the previous one. "I will destroy you in the name of justice!" Jeanne shot at the imp thrice, three bullets with the shape of Zelel's head fired itself at the imp. The imp dodged the first one, it raised its hands up and put a toy-like shield in front of itself and managed to block the second one; however he was hit by the third one as soon as the shield disappeared.

"Hey dude, not fair! No matter, I still have a lot more where that came from! Hehehehe!" the imp jumped down from the building in front on Jeanne.

"You will not win! I will defeat you to restore everything in their rightful order!" Jeanne shot another bullet at the imp, but it side stepped and easily dodged it. The bullet unexpectedly turned around and went back to hit the imp. The monster smiled and clapped its hands once, so the bullet quickly changed its color to red and exploded.

"Hehehe! Ya keep talkin about 'Justice' and restoring it. Do ya even know the meaning of it? Hehehe!" the imp looked at Jeanne with its glowing forest green eyes.

"Justice is restoring order by destroying all that is evil!" Jeanne shot more bullets at the imp who playfully dodged all of it.

"Hehehehe!" the imp laughed. "Hahaha! Don't think that just by destroying evil, justice will be restored!"

"…what do you mean?" Jeanne asked.

"Everyone has some sorta evil inside them, ya get what I mean, dude? Hehehe!" the imp said. "Not all humans are purely good! Hehehehe! What are ya doin pretending to be some kinda holy knight of justice? Hahaha! Since everyone has a certain evil in them, does that mean you're gonna destroy everything?"

"Be quiet!" Jeanne tried to aim carefully at the imp, but she couldn't get a clear shot because the imp kept moving around; now she's wondering where the imp got all its energy.

"Whatcha think dude? Am I right or am I right? Hahahaha!" the imp chanted some words and summoned a lego-like toy dragon which was as tall as a lamp post. It jumped up on the dragon's shoulder and looked down at Jeanne. "Ya have some evil in ya too ya know, so why don't ya just admit it? Hehehe!"

"There is no evil in me! If there was, then I wouldn't be able to defeat evil!"

"Hehehe! That's what ya think, dude!" the imp laughed. "…but I'm sorry to disappoint ya; cause I'm right and you're wrong! Hahahaha! Dragon Bot! Finish off that dude! Mwahahaha!"

The lego dragon huffed until its tummy was the size of a giant balloon then blew out fire crackers. "ZELEL!" The gun turned in to a rectangular shield and guarded Jeanne. The imp kept commanding the lego dragon to keep firing, and eventually, the shield started to crack.

"Looks like you're starting to fall dude! Hahahaha!" the imp jumped happily up and down on the lego dragon while it fired more fire crackers at Jeanne.

"What do I do now?" Jeanne used all her strength to hold back the attacks. She's not that strong without Syamasu or the Iron Maiden Sarcophagus. She started loosing confidence, but she then remembered that if she had to destroy evil or else... 'Wait, is that how I am? I destroy everything that is evil, or do I destroy everything that seems evil according to me?'

The imp kept launching the fire crackers, Jeanne was just there defending, because she knew that she had no chance of counter attacking. "I have to find a…"

She was interrupted when a giant fire cracker headed towards her way. Jeanne blocked it, but barely, and now it seems like Zelel can only hold up the shield in just a few minutes.

"Hahahaha! You're gonna die soon, dude! All that talk about justice is just a bunch of lies! There's no possible way to attain justice cause everyone has sinned and will continue to sin! HAHAHA!"

"No…it…it is true…nobody is completely good or perfect…and I just said justice was to destroy everything that is not purely good…"

Jeanne has had enough of this trouble making monster, she decided to end it once and for all. At the moment the lego dragon stopped for awhile to catch its breath, she moved out of the way; Syamasu turned back into a revolver and Jeanne shot the lego dragon, breaking it into a million tiny pieces.

"Dude ya trashed one of my toys again! Look's like I'm gonna have to make ya pay! Hahahaha!" the imp snapped its fingers and a giant yoyo started rolling its way towards Jeanne. She shot the ground in order to rocket herself above and over the rolling yoyo. "Dude you're spoilin' the fun, come and play some more! I know, let's play a game ya would definitely like, shadow tag! Its simple really, ya just try to destroy the evil shadows and try to restore justice, isn't that what you're supposed to do? Hehehehe!"

Shadows that took shape of the Jinx Imp's own shadow started crawling towards Jeanne. She simply stood there and shot a bullet up in the air. "Flash Shot!" The attack illuminated the street, causing the shadows to disappear.

"Heh…dude, you're making me angry and ya won't like me when I'm like that!" the imp slowly lost its mischievousness.

"You know what, you were half right…" Jeanne said. The imp could not help but answer "eh?" to Jeanne's statement. "Nobody is purely good no matter how hard they try. Justice is not destroying everything evil; it is restoring order by restoring right relationships!"

"Dude, think whatever ya want to think, cause right now the only thing I can think of is destroying ya!" the imp's playful attitude turned around three hundred sixty degrees.

"You won't win!" Jeanne held up its gun at the imp. "White Wing Blast!" A white light the shape of a bird shot out of the revolvers nozzle. The imp realized to late that she fired at him.

"No fair!" the shot impaled the imp and it yelled out aloud. "How dare ya defeat me? When I get back, I'm gonna make sure that I…!" the imp couldn't finish its sentence for he shattered into tiny white lights.

Jeanne let out a sigh; the revolver returned to its original form. She waited for the lights to disappear and to check if there was any stone there. She looked closer and spotted a blackish stone with a word written on it. "False" it then turned to a shiny color of silver. "Reality".

Without looking back, she turned around and started walking after letting a talisman float to the air and to Jun. A smile crept her face and she continued walking

* * *

"I was sure that the imp would finish her" Hao said. "Oh well, no one's perfect. You know, that imp has an anger management problem just like Ren, don't you agree Spirit of Fire?"

Somewhere in the streets after Ren has slain a monster, he let out a soft sneeze. "Someone's thinking about something about me, it better not be Horohoro or else I'm gonna kill him."

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Okay, I sorta rushed this because I had to update it the next day. I hope you guys like it!

By the way, if you're having a hard time visualizing the characters: Jeanne's outfit is the one where she's wearing a blackish sleeveless shirt and she has pants on. The imp…just imagine Impmon from Digimon Tamers, not imagine him in the outfit I described earlier.

The character chapter thingys are random. I drew their names from a box, so that's how the order went. The only thing is that I left out two characters from the drawing lots thing I just did, guess who. Okay…so the next name I picked out from the box is…


	7. Irony and Insanity

Wow, I didn't expect this many reviews, so thanks for all of the reviews.

I don't know much about the techniques of the next character, so I just made it up. Just pretend he learned them after the Shaman Fight.

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Chapter 7: Irony and Insanity

Hao couldn't help but turn his smile upside down when Jeanne walked away victoriously as another talisman flew across the night sky. "What a waste of good monsters really." Hao looked around the city, spying on the shamans. Yoh has just beaten another monster, same goes for Ryo and Lyserg, and surprisingly Pirika.

He was about to turn his attention to Anna who was walking towards a path where a monster was about to pounce on her, but then he saw something, or rather someone far more interesting. "Now this would be quite a fight…"

* * *

"Okay, of all the monsters I had to run into, it had to be a Jester" Chocolove oversouled Mic into his own body and readied himself against the Jester which laughed crazily as its greenish saliva slowly poured out of its mouth. "Eeewww, not Jester, deranged rabid Jester's more like it!"

"HEHAHAHAHAHA!" the Jester was crazier than anyone could ever imagine. It pulled out bloody knives from behind its back and tossed them at Chocolove. His agility allowed himself to dodge most of the daggers. "HIHIHIHEHEHA!"

"Like I said, of all the monsters I had to run into, it had to be a monster who I want to grow up to be" the future comedian, which he addressed himself as, looked at the Jester laughing madly as if there was no tomorrow.

Just a little earlier, Chocolove was casually walking along the cold concrete. He has beaten a lot of monsters, so he couldn't count how many exactly he defeated. A few seconds passed, then he heard to soft sobs and one maniacal laugh. By instinct, he ran to the source of the sound. He reached the place; he found two children probably around the age of eight, cowering in the corner of a building. The monster that was cornering then was thin but scary looking with its over curved smile.

It looked like as if the monster was about to eat the children alive. Chocolove immediately jumped up and kicked the monster away. He asked the two kids if they were alright. They both nodded; the older looking one told Chocolove that the monster was too strong for him and his friend. Chocolove looked above them and saw one ghost and one tiny leaf shikigami; he assumed that both of them were shamans. He instructed both of them to return to their homes while he takes care of the monster; the two nodded, deciding that they have had enough action for the night.

He faced the monster and found out that he had to battle someone like himself. Not particularly the same has Chocolove, but someone whom he wanted to be like when he grew up, without out the thick and heavy clown make up of course. Chocolove clenched its fist and looked at the monster directly in the eye. "You are supposed to make children happy with laughter! How dare you make them cry with one of your lame jokes!" That was how it all began.

"Double Cross Slash!" Chocolove jumped in the air and slashed the Jester. It side stepped, so only its clothes were ripped. The monster looked at the rip in his clothes and then at Chocolove. It smiled widely at him and started laughing. "This monster's crazy Mic!"

"HEHEHEHEHAHAHA!" madness, this single word could be used to describe this monster.

"No wonder the kids were afraid of you!" Chocolove said. "You may have over did it a little!" The monster continued laughing and tossing bloody daggers at its victim. "Okay, not a little, but a lot!"

The jester took out a hotdog balloon and inflated it; afterwards, the monster shaped it into a hyena and tossed it at Chocolove. Knowing any better, Chocolove jumped aside and avoided the hyena balloon. As soon as the hyena balloon hit the ground, it exploded. Instead of big flames, the greenish saliva of the jester exploded from the balloon and spluttered all over the area. A little droplets fell on Chocolove's hair and clothes.

"Ha! A spit bomb is one of the oldest tricks in the book!" Chocolove said, but not until he saw steam. He looked at his surroundings, everything that the greenish liquid touched dissolved. Chocolove panicked, but he calmed himself down by saying that only a few droplets fell on him fortunately. "Okay, acidic spit bomb, definitely new."

The jester laughed, either he was crazy, because of Chocolove's side comment, or both. Seeing that the monster was the one laughing at him didn't make Chocolove happy at all, considering that the happiest sounds that could be heard was laughter, one not coming from an evil person or living thing.

"This is just too weird!" Chocolove said to himself. The jester grinned widely at him, his eye glowed yellow while his other eye glowed red, and he was looking at him menacingly, laughing loudly. "Why are you laughing?"

This was getting way out of hand. The jester continued laughing, slowly dragging its feet towards Chocolove. "Why are you laughing?" His words seem to go past the jester like a soft wind, none of them heard. "Why are you laughing?" He finally said for the third time, this was too much. Chocolove was starting to get traumatized by a figure he looked up to.

"Stop laughing! Stop laughing!" Chocolove kept going forward and slashing it, but the only thing he was hitting were the clothes which just magically sewed itself together for some unknown reason. The jester kept laughing like a Hyena while Chocolove shouted at it to stop laughing. The more he said it, the harder it would laugh, and he soon found himself adding the words "at me" after the words "Stop laughing"

"EEHHAAHAHAHAHA!" To think, he trained a lot just to make people laugh, but right now the strange laughter of the jester is driving him crazy. This wasn't the kind of laugh that he wanted to receive from an audience, he wanted laughter of delight, not a mocking laughter of insanity. If Chocolove lost his concentration for just one bit, the laughter would drive him mad. Chocolove kept fighting and keeping his focus thanks to Mic, but he was slowly loosing it.

"Come on Mic, lets give him a taste of our Jaguar Sprint!" Chocolove and Mic started dashing around the jester; they were so fast that they created copy images of themselves. The jester laughed moderately, reached into its pants and pulled out dozens and dozens of banana peels which randomly scattered themselves on the ground. Chocolove slipped in one of those banana peels and slowed down.

When the jester could clearly see the real Chocolove, he pulled out a giant boxing glove from behind its back and punched Chocolove on the back. The impact was so strong that it sent him flying and crashing into a wall.

He sat up and looked at the jester, still laughing. It pointed to Chocolove and made a gesture of fanning out air from its nose. Clearly it meant "You stink!" Who wouldn't understand that? He wasn't making fun anymore; he was being made fun of by a low monster.

"Mic do something!" the jaguar roared in reply and made the clown slip. It fell face first on the concrete; Chocolove went to check it out, but the jester's head suddenly jolted up, grinned widely, and started laughing at him again even though it just lost a tooth and its nose was bleeding. To Chocolove, this was now beyond scary, nothing seems to work against this monster. Every time he would hit the monster, it would just grin then laugh loudly as if it enjoyed being hurt.

"I can't take this laughter! I don't want to be a comedian anymore!" he quickly ran away, but not too far off.

* * *

"Doesn't want to be a comedian anymore?" Hao said. "In the first place, who even wants to be a comedian? The salary is not that high and you get constantly laughed at; or if not, thrown fruits at if they think you're lame; so why bother being one anyway?"

* * *

Chocolove couldn't think of a better hiding place than an empty barrel which was big enough to fit him. It was the first time he realized laughter can really be contagious, and so can insanity. Mic left his body and tried to find out what the clown had done to him, or rather, what happened to him.

"Stop the laughing, I never want to hear the sound of laughter ever again!" Chocolove said to himself, covering his ears to deafen himself from the jester.

A few seconds passed and then a few minutes; Chocolove then noticed that his main spirit was gone. "Mic? Hey Mic, where are you?"

He popped his head out of the mailbox, looked around to see if the coast is clear, and then he jumped out. "Mic? Mic?" his jaguar spirit was nowhere to be found. "Mic?" he called in a moderate volume. He suddenly heard a roar which could only belong to Mic. He jumped down from the building and in front of Chocolove. "Hey Mic, where have you been buddy? I was looking all over for you."

"He came to call me…" a voice called out from the building where Mic jumped off from. The voice belonged to an old man who did the same thing Mic did earlier.

"Master is that you?" Chocolove recognized his master right away with his distinguishing features and warm smile. "I heard from Mic that something's wrong, so what's the haps?"

Chocolove looked down shamefully "I don't think I want to be a comedian anymore…"

The master could see where he was coming from after fighting with a monster which is laughing non stop. "Why so?"

"Comedians are only made fun of, so why bother? I don't want that to happen to me" Chocolove answered. "All that laughter, what kind of happiness does it bring?"

"Hmmm. Well it's hard to explain really. I think I see the problem, that jester kept laughing at you for no reason, and now you're afraid to know what the people are laughing at, you or your jokes. You have to understand that a comedian's duty is to make people laugh, period. Whether they are laughing at you or not, it is also your duty to decide whether you will take it personally as an insult or as a job well done. If you take it as an insult, let go and work harder to improve; if you take it as a compliment, hang on to that thought and use it to improve your self. Now you think about what I said okay, I have to go now because I have a show scheduled in the spirit world; but I'm not leaving because of that, but because spirits at peace aren't allowed on earth anymore."

Chocolove nodded and watched his master wave goodbye at both him and Mic. His master soon departed to the spirit world, leaving only his words to Chocolove.

* * *

"Hey where have you been?" the spirit of a bar asked Chocolove's master. "You're next and you haven't prepared yet. What have you been doing?"

Chocolove's master sat on the chair in the dressing room of a bar located somewhere in the spirit world. "I just went back to earth to teach a pupil of mine one final lesson."

* * *

"So, what do we do now Mic?" Chocolove's question got answered when the jester showed itself to Chocolove, still laughing. "I guess we fight that jester again."

Chocolove used oversoul and took fighting stance while the jester stood there goofily. "Hope this works!" Chocolove jumped up in the air. "Spirit Hurricane!"

He ran in circles around the jester who took banana peels from its pants and threw them on the ground. Chocolove knew how to avoid this after his past experience, he jumped up in the air an continued running around the jester.

"Hey jester, do you know who invented the round table? Sir Cumference!" the jester started laughing harder than before and the wind got stronger. "Why was the Egyptian girl sad? Because she found out that her daddy was a mummy!" Each joke Chocolove told made the jester laugh harder and made the wind stronger.

The jester got caught in a tree in the process; the hurricane was still spinning around the monster and Chocolove was now at the eye of the hurricane. "How can you catch a squirrel's attention? Go up a tree and act like a nut!" the clown laughed so hard that it started fading away; Chocolove noticed this too.

By the time the wind died down, the jester transformed into tiny white lights. "Wow, talk about laughing to death."

Chocolove noticed a stone in a nest of the tree where the jester hung. He jumped up and retrieved the dark brown stone. "Madness" he jumped down the tree as soon as the stone changed from dark brown to tan, "Calmness."

Chocolove grinned and pocketed the stone. Looks like I win this battle, and I think I've also learned a lesson. I don't know where I picked it up, but it's something about laughter, Mic. It isn't the best medicine, happiness is. If laughter should come from the heart, not only from the lungs or the mouth."

As Chocolove was narrating what he learned to Mic, and also telling a few good jokes in between. He spotted another monster; a big green Frankenstine with no expression on its face or what so ever. "Looks like we're gonna have teach this monster my newly learned lesson, and also give him a medicine with a taste it'kk never forget!"

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Okay, I got a little freaked out while writing the story. Just imagine you were walking along the sideways at night all alone, then suddenly this clown will jump out of nowhere, looks at you straight in the eye, grins widely at you, and start laughing like crazy, then it will slowly reach for its back and pull something out…scary…


	8. Sideline and Frontline

For some unknown reason, I feel relaxed and happy, so I decided to start writing the next chapter! Have to hurry up cause if I don't I'm going to be behind schedule.

Oh, and for the good monster (yes, good, as in, not evil) of the chapter, just use your imagination, ok?

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Chapter 8: Sideline and Frontline

The monster sniffed its surroundings and spotted the person it was chasing. The black Cyclops dog found her and started chasing her as it barked loudly.

"Come on, work, work!" Pirika shouted at the talisman she received from Jun just before everyone separated. It was a special talisman because it has the ability to summon a particular kyonshi, depending on what is written on the talisman. There was only one problem; it would be hard for her to call forth the creature because she is not a trained doshi. So now she has to concentrate and say the incantation in her mind with correct timing.

"Please work, I did this already! I did it lot of times awhile ago! Work!" after multiple attempts, she was finally able to do it correctly. Pirika tossed the talisman to the ground which soon became covered in smoke. The smoke soon cleared and a bizarre creature climbed out from it. It was a grayish polar bear covered in a few big stitches. Sewn on its back was a Tao family emblem It had a tail of a crocodile, the arms of an eagle's feet, and the head of a snow lion.

"Thank goodness…" Pirika sighed as she dropped to the ground. "Now you're going to pay for making me run around!" she said to the Cyclops dog in particular. "Kyonshi! Defeat that monster!" the polar bear kyonshi obeyed and it slashed the Cyclops dog, but it missed due to the monster's fast speed. "I got an idea! Corner that one eyed dog, then attack!" the Kyonshi obeyed and drove the black beast in to a corner

"Lurid Stab!" the polar bear Kyonshi yelled, using its sharp talons, it stabbed the dog and finished it. The kyonshi stood on its two hind legs and roared in victory. The dead monster evaporated in to light, but no stone was found.

"Oh well, we still have time" Pirika looked at the clock. "Good work kyonshi!" she patted the polar bear's lion head and it purred in reply. "You know, I think I should give you a name, it's better than calling you Kyonshi, right?" the polar bear just stood on its hind legs and looked down to Pirika. "Hmm, how about 'Orion'? It sounds okay, so what do you think?"

The kyonshi, who now accepted the name "Orion" nodded and returned to the talisman. "I guess that's a yes…" Pirika picked up the talisman and continued walking.

She stopped suddenly when she heard a sound that she couldn't describe. It was some sort of sound from the future or something out of this world. She looked up and saw something. A greenish creature with an oversized forehead, thin body, and big black bug-like eyes showed itself to her. Pirika looked at the creature fromo head to toe, "Next time, if your big brother says that aliens exist, believe him no matter how stupid it sounds…" Pirika said silently to herself.

"It's no use hiding your thoughts earthling" the alien said. "My mind has the ability to read the brain waves being transmitted."

"…" this alien was something. It was just like something that popped out from a sci fi movie.

"I see that you killed my dog, Polyphemus"

"Your dog attacked me! I had no choice!"

"Hmph…humans are so cruel"

"What do you mean? It was your dog which attacked me, I think it is the other way around."

"No matter, I would still have to defeat you because it is a direct order from master Hao do kill all humans."

"I won't allow you to do that then!" Pirika pulled out the talisman from her pocket and prayed that she won't screw up.

'Ancient talisman, handed down from generation to generation. Lend me the power to summon forth the creature from the next world. I sacrifice my energy in exchange for this creature which I seek. I command the Bearcat Kyonshi, Orion, come forth upon your master's order!' Pirika tossed the talisman to the ground which covered itself in smoke when it hit the ground. Out of the smoke, the grayish polar bear climbed out in front of its summoner.

"Interesting" the alien said. "Humans also have some sort of individual servant.

"Orion, attack it!" Pirika ordered her kyonshi. Orion ran towards the alien, who just stood still.

"I cannot run away fast enough to avoid the attack and I cannot fight well, so I will just have to use a hologram materializer to fight for me" the alien took a ray gun from behind its back and fired it on the ground in front of himself. A dog similar to that of Polyphemus appeared and growled loudly at Orion. "Let's make it more interesting by adding a few more parts." The ray gun turned into a remote control; the alien pushed some of the buttons and Polyphemus looked as if it were growing stronger. The black dog gained three additional head, had its body enlarged, grew two additional sharp tails, and had sharper fangs and claws.

Pirika got frightened by the appearance of Polyphemus which looked like a Cerberus. "Orion, go!" her voice seemed to lack confidence.

* * *

"Who would've thought that she could summon a corpse…" Hao said. "But even if she managed to succeed, it would still drain a lot of energy from her because she is not a shaman and she is not a doshi."

* * *

The alien could see Pirika trying to catch her breath the longer Orion fought. Hao was right about her, it would drain her energy since she has no special powers. "You're growing weaker by the minute, let me end your suffering by finishing you off now!"

The alien ordered Polyphemus to attack Pirika, but Orion blocked its path and pushed it back. "Orion?" She looked at Orion; the polar ear continued guarding Pirika from the Cerberus. Since Pirika was starting to run low on energy, so was Orion, but the kyonshi didn't show signs of weakness.

The battle went on until Orion was hit hard and sent flying to a wall. "Orion!" Pirika tried to run towards Orion, but the alien shouted to her.

"You shouldn't interfere in the monster battle. It would be useless since you have no fighting skills!" the alien said.

"I can interferre any time I want to!"

"That is against the rules. It is rude of you to interrupt this sport!"

"Sport? Sport! You think this is some kind of sport?" Pirika yelled. "You have no right to call this monster battle a sport. We do not fight for entertainment but for survival. Sure I don't have fighting skills, but I what I can do right now is support Orion and believe in him. Sure I borrowed him from a friend of mine, but he's my friend and I won't allow you to hurt him!"

"Come on Orion! You can do it!" Pirika yelled and supported. Orion felt the strength that Pirika was giving her. It felt more powerful than before.

"What is that creature doing?" the alien asked, puzzled.

"I just thought that Orion might need a helping hand!" Pirika answered.

The alien looked at Pirika and Orion, it couldn't see and sense the powerful aura that was surrounding her. "Helping Hand? What kind of human body part is that? It is not part of my research, what are you talking about?"

"You take things too literally!" Pirika said. "Orion, finish Polyphemus then the alien!"

Orion jumped up in to the air and did a diving attack. "Waterfall Slash!" Orion attacked Polyphemus and slashed it in half. There was no stone in Polyphemus, so now it was the alien's turn.

"Orion, finish the alien and show him your strength!" Pirika said.

"Rapid Frost Stab!" Orion dashed to the alien and jabbed it multiple times just like how Ren would attack with his rapid temple assult. The alien was speechless for it's body soon became specks of white light.

"You did it Orion!" Pirika jumped up and down. She looked at the disappearing white lights and saw a dark blue stone on the ground. "Observe" It changed from dark blue to Aquamarine, then the word on it changed to "Support."

Orion roared victoriously before returning to its talisman. "I wonder if I can ask Jun and Horohoro to let me keep Orion…" she started walking, but then she suddenly felt weak. It was probably because she gave all her energy to Orion. She found a bench to rest on, and soon after, she fell fast asleep.

* * *

"Having a pet like that kyonshi of hers might not be such a bad idea." Hao said as he searched the area for someone else to observe.

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I think it's kinda short cause I was really in a super duper hurry to finish this story. If there is OOCness in the story, I'm sorry, I'll make it better next time. I hope you liked it any way.

The incantation that Pirika said was made up by me, so it's not that good.

Please review guys! Thanks so much!


	9. Always Fighting By Your Side

Sorry that the last chapter wasn't too good, exciting, or long cause I had to rush it. But anyway, the story continues! We're almost done with the single characters, just five more to go (excluding this one). I bet you guys can't wait for the last few chapters.

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Chapter 9: Always Fighting By Your Side

There was a battle going on somewhere near the onsen. A loud thud echoed in the night and crashing sounds soon followed after wards. The figure of a giant scorpion shot up to the sky, then the kyonshi of Jun jumped up into the air to meet the scorpion. In the blink of an eye, the scorpion was defeated after Pyron delivered thousands of rapid kicks to the monster. As Pyron and the scorpion fell to the ground, the scorpion seemingly dissolved into white lights.

Pyron spotted a stone on his way down, so he grabbed it and landed on the ground. "Miss Jun, I think this is the stone that we are looking for." Pyron handed it to Jun and she examined it afterwards.

"Yes, it is one of the stones" Jun examined the dark forest green stone. It had a blurred word on it, and it was only legible enough for them to identify that the beginning letter was "D" and the last letter was "T". Pyron gave Jun the talisman, and she put it in her pocket where the rest of the used talismans were place. "So we now have eight talismans, so that means there are ten more stones left."

They were both interrupted when they saw a long tail heading inside the backyard of a random house. Quietly, Pyron snuck up to the backyard in order to make a surprise attack. When he jumped into the backyard, he didn't see the monster anymore, whatever it was. He moved cautiously around the giant backyard that belonged to a house which was fortunately empty at the moment. It was very quiet, not even the chirping of the crickets, the hooting of an owl, or the shrieking of bats could be heard; it was dead quiet.

"Pyron! Behind you!" the awkward silence was interrupted when Jun warned Pyron. He turned around one hundred eighty degrees and saw a slim monster diving towards him. He quickly jumped back and avoided the monster's attack. The darkness did not allow them to see the actual features of the monster; they only thing that they knew is that this monster was silent and swift, making it very deadly.

The enemy disappeared once again in the shadows; the two of them were in high alert once again. The dark surroundings gave the monster the advantage.

"I have an idea!" Jun took a talisman from her pocket and tossed it in the air. The talisman glowed brightly and lit up the whole back yard which was pitch dark just a moment ago. The light shone brightly on the slim monster. It was a giant green cobra with upper and lower limbs and yellow glowing eyes. "It looks like some sort of snake man."

The snake hissed dangerously and moved slickly along the grass, Pyron took fighting stance and readied himself for any attack. "Pyron! Attack now!"

Pyron delivered multiple punches, kicks, and some of his dao dando technique, the barely hit the monster because it kept avoiding the attacks, which was easy for it due to it's long and slim body.

The snake hissed loudly and jumped up the backyard's oak tree. It breathed deeply and blasted a lot of poison needle from its mouth. "Jun!" Pyron saw some of the needles heading towards Jun. She noticed it when it was almost too late, so she just dropped to her knees and covered her eyes. While her eyes were closed, she didn't feel anything. Jun opened her eyes and saw Pyron using himself as a shield to protect her.

The needle rain stopped and the snake hid once again in the shadows. "Jun, are you alright?" he asked her while wincing slightly due to the needles on his back.

"Yes I'm fine, but what about you Pyron?" Jun asked. Pyron reached for his back and pulled out the needles. It hurt a bit, but I don't think the poison in these needles would affect me anyway.

Jun smiled. "I'm glad to hear about that." Both of them suddenly noticed that the snakeman was gone. "Pyron, be careful, I can sense that it's still around." They both stood their ground, waiting for the snake to attack. Jun could hear the hissing, but almost barely. Pyron spotted the snake hidden in a bush, what gave it away was that the very tip of its tail was poking out of the bush.

Realizing that it would be useless to continue hiding, the snake jumped out of the bush a dove straight for Pyron. "Stand back!" The snake and Pyron locked hands and were now attempting to push each other off balance; but the sly snake used its tail to administer extra strength. The force applied on Pyron made him go off balance for awhile.

The snakeman was about to inject a venomous, if not, deadly bite to Pyron; but thanks to his quick reflexes, he avoided a major shoulder injury. He pulled out his nunchucks from behind his back and gave the snakeman numerous blows. It gave the snakeman major injuries, but it still wasn't down.

Tired and angry, the snakeman pulled a new trick by completely disappearing despite the bright light being emitted by the talisman. It could be camouflage or cloaking, so they had to be extra careful.

The snakeman suddenly jumped from behind Pyron and bit him in the back. Jun watched horrified as Pyron yell while the snakeman dug its claws in Pyron's two arms. With all his remaining strength, he rammed the snake into the oak tree. Both of them fell to the ground and went on a very very short hiatus. "Pyron, are you okay?" Jun asked worriedly.

"I think I am, but my upper body feels numb" Pyron said, and without warning, the snakeman stood up and used its very long tail to bind Pyron. The fact that he couldn't feel pain in his upper body was okay, but the pain he felt on his lower half was tremendous due to the powerful constrict of the snakeman. He couldn't break free because he couldn't move half of his body.

"Pyron! Don't worry, I'm coming!" she ran towards the snakeman, she didn't know what she was going to do once she gets there, she just wants to help Pyron break free from the snake's grasp so that he can fight back.

"No Jun, stay back! The monster might try to hurt you too!" Jun stopped running when Pyron warned her. "Just go Jun, I'll handle it from here! I'll distract the snakeman while you find the other remaining stones!"

"…but what about…"

"Don't worry, I'll catch up, just go!"

Jun looked at Pyron trying to wrestle the snake or somehow make it loosen its grip on him. She knew Pyron could handle this monster, but she was slowly loosing confidence because she saw Pyron's energy being slowly drained.

Jun decided that she would help Pyron, whether he likes it or not. "Pyron, hold your breath!" Jun took out a talisman and tossed it to the ground near the snakeman. It emitted smoke, letting the snakeman loosen its grip on Pyron. He held its breath, so he was able to make it out of the smoke screened area of the big backyard.

"Jun?"

"Come on Pyron, you've got to be crazy to make me leave you all alone with that snake!" Jun said. "I have a few tricks up my sleeve, so don't think that I can't fight. Besides, we're a team, and we'll always be side by side." Jun and Pyron smiled at each other.

The smoke screen cleared and the snakeman was covered in smoke. It would now be hard for him to camouflage. "Like I was saying, I have a few tricks up my sleeve, and I think I feel a bit funny because I didn't think about using this earlier." She took another talisman and threw it at the snake. The snake avoided it, but it was not aiming for the monster, but for the oak tree behind it. When the talisman stuck itself to the bark of the oak tree, a sticky web started spurting out of the talisman and to the snakeman.

It was now caught in a sticky web like an insect. Now that it's movement completely stopped, the snakeman was now defenseless. "Care to do the honors Pyron?"

"I'm glad you asked" Pyron charged toward the snakeman to give it its final blow. "Dao Dando Rocket Kick!" With his arms and upper body numb, he used his powerful feet to finish the job. The snakeman turned into tiny white lights and disappeared completely.

"Well, that was a new" Jun said while wiping her forehead. She suddenly felt her pocket warm up, she pulled out the stone and found out that it was emtting some kind of warmth. The word on the stone now became legible, "Reliant". The stone changed from dark forest green to a lighter color and the word changed to "Independent".

"Now we can say that we truly got the stone" Jun said as she and Pyron looked at the stone's new form. A talisman suddenly floated in front of her. "It looks like someone also got another stone." She put the talisman in her pocket and continued her search for the other stones with the help from her very close friend.

* * *

Spirit of Fire looked at the expression on Hao's face. While Hao was watching from above, a shadowy figure appeared behind him. 

"Hao, are you sure about what you are doing?" the voice sounded very dark and sinister, like it came from the deepest point in the earth.

"Yes I am sure" Hao smiled. "This is getting interesting; I want to give them a little surprise once they get all the seventeen stones."

"What ever you say Hao" the shadowy figure said. "Was it necessary to fake the retrieval of another stone?"

"Yes, because the surprise will start once they gather in the Soul Mata Cemetery."

"I see…"

"I should give you credit for being able to steal a talisman from one of my brother's friends without being detected."

"It was my pleasure."

Hao scanned the city, his brother's friends and some unidentified shamans continued fighting the monsters he unleashed. " Let's just wait a little longer for them to collect the stones; besides, midnight is still hours away, so sit back and enjoy the show."

The shadowy creature was wearing a cloak, the only noticeable feature about it was it's crimson colored eyes which was almost covered by its dark hood.

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Who is this "shadowy figure" that Hao's talking to? We'll just have to find out in the later chapters.

It's short again because I had to rush it, sorry…but I hope you guys still enjoy it. So who's next on our list?


	10. My Fair Lady

Thanks for the reviews! It was because of those that I am still writing this Halloween story. I would've deleted this story days ago if it weren't for the reviews. So here's the new chapter, so sit back and enjoy.

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Chapter 10: My Fair Lady

"Okay, so where are the monsters?" Ryu has defeated over fifteen monsters already and still no stone; and now there were no monsters. A black cat was frightened away because of the noise. "Great, just when I was on a roll, all the monsters have to run away just like that!" he continued talking while Tokageroh floated beside him, as if he even had a choice to continue listening to Ryu talking non stop about the monsters.

* * *

"This looks worth the watching time" Hao diverted his attention from Lyserg to Ryu. He had no idea what was waiting for him. The cloaked figure just stood beside Hao and watched in silence.

* * *

"Okay, will you just…"

"Shhh…" Ryu put his finger over his mouth. "I can hear footsteps…"

They continued walking and walking. Ryu and Tokageroh got ready, he reached for his wooden sword, ready to strike.

They were now hiding behind a corner, ready to attack; for Tokageroh, he was ready to oversoul anytime. "Ready…"

Ryu jumped out with his wooden sword right above his head, only to find out that what he saw was not what he expected to see.

It was just a girl, looking very scared at the moment. Ryu stopped for a moment and looked at the girl from top to bottom. 'Wow, she's hot…' Ryu thought silently to himself. Tokageroh wanted to hit Ryu right now, but he couldn't help but feel and think the same way Ryu was thinking. The girl was dressed in dark green, she had brown eyes and red streaked hair.

"Eeekkk!" the girl used her purse and smacked Ryu right across the face. The poor man got tossed right in to the wall. "You tried to attack me!" the girl kept pounding Ryu with her almighty pink purse while he tried to shield himself. Tokageroh entered the shop through the window and pitifully watched Ryu be beat up by a teenager.

"Wait! Ow! Miss! Ouch! Stop! Oooff! I didn't mean to scare you! Yeow! Sorry! Yikes! I'm really sorry! Ah!" Ryu was expecting for another smack to come, but fortunately, it didn't.

"Oh, I'm sorry" the girl said. "I thought you were and monster or some kind of thug, so my instinct told me to hit you. Good thing I didn't bring out my pepper spray."

"Pepper Spray?" Ryu wiped his forehead. What's worse than being smacked on the head is being blinded by some sort of spray similar to that of tear gas.

"I'm really sorry mister"

"No problem, just glad we got things clear" Ryu stood up, wiped his forehead, and combed his almost ruin hairdo with his special high tech looking comb that he always carries around with him. "By the way, you can call me Ryu, and I'm single!"

"Right…and I'm Riza, way younger than you, single, and forever will be single" Riza said in a straight forward manner.

"Strike twenty nine" Tokageroh snickered quietly after another failed attempt of Ryu.

"Is that a ghost?" Riza pointed to Tokageroh, surprising both him and Ryu.

"Hey, you can see me?" Tokageroh asked.

"Of course I can, you're a green skinned man"

"Does that mean you're a shaman miss Riza?"

"Shaman? What is that?"

"Oh, so you can only see ghosts, but you can't actually be possessed by them" Ryu said and Riza nodded her head. 'So I guess she's kinda like Manta then.'

"Anyway, can you help me?" Riza asked. Immediately, Ryu was all ears. "I came here from Shibuya to visit my cousin. It's my first time here and I don't know where I'm going."

"Don't worry miss Riza. I'll be your guide; I know Funbari as if it were my own room. So where do you want to go?"

"1728 Polo St. Do you know where it is?"

'That's the street next to Master Yoh's school; and unit 1728 is…' Ryu thought to himself. "Yes I know where it is, but it's a little far from here. Do you mind?"

"No, not at all; besides, I just want to get off the streets. It's full of creepy monsters, is this how you guys celebrate Halloween?"

"Uh, no; it's only temporary. Well, let's go!" Ryu, Tokageroh, and Riza started moving northward to Polo St.; but a monster jumps down from a tree after a black cat fell down and scampered away. It hungrily approached Ryu with its rotting limbs. "Time for some action, stand back Riza!" She obeyed and observed Ryu and Tokageroh fight the corpse of a magician.

* * *

"Hao, when is the monster going to make a move on those people?" Hao's new companion asked. The shaman simply smiled at it and continued observing. "Doesn't your mouth get tired when you grin like that?"

"Not really, why?"

"Nothing, just a thought."

"You should try smiling more often you know" Hao said, not facing the monster.

"You should know me by now Hao, I never smile."

* * *

"Double cross slash!" Ryu slashed the monster and it broke up into tiny white lights.

"Wow, you're kinda amazing you know" Riza said cheerfully. "You were able to beat three monsters."

"I'm very flattered miss Riza" Ryu rubbed the back of his neck and continued walking. "If you didn't call my attention before the two previous monsters attacked, then you I would've been dead."

"No problem!" Riza walked a little ahead of Ryu.

"So Riza, what's that thing on your bag?" Ryu asked, he had kept his eyes on the keychain of Riza's purse.

"Oh this?" Riza held the keychain. "I brought this handmade key chain from a bazaar" it was a little goth girl doll, hand made, and a little cute. "Come on Ryu, I think we're almost there. I can't wait to get off these scary streets."

Ten minutes later, they were already in front of Yoh's school, just one and a half more streets to go before they reach their destination. It looked like a normal walk from a random person's point of view, but Ryu felt that something was wrong. Tokageroh sensed something too.

Ryu stopped in his tracks, Riza looked back at Ryu who seemed to be in deep thought. "Hey Ryu, is there something wrong?" Riza shivered when a cold wind blew by. "Ryu, I think there's another monster."

Ryu still didn't reply because he was in deep thought. Riza looked at him questioningly. "Riza, just how long do you plan on keeping up this act?"

"Huh? What are you talking about Ryu?" she asked him.

"You're not human; I sensed it from the very beginning."

"Ryu, I don't understand what you're saying. All I want is to go to my cousin's house; I thought you would go there with me?"

"I would accompany you there, but only if you admit the truth, monster!"

Riza had her head facing the ground by now, her bangs covering her eyes. Ryu and Tokageroh just looked at her. Riza finally lifted her head up and smiled. "You two are smarter than I thought." Riza pulled out a perfume vial and threw it to the ground, covering her in a thick green smoke. When she stepped out, her true appearance was revealed.

"A witch?" Ryu expected it her to be a monster, but never a witch; a very ugly one in fact. It was a traditional witch; black clothing, green skin, long nose with a big hairy wart on it, pointed hat, broom…definitely a traditional Halloween witch. "I tried to ask out a witch and I even called her hot! That is so unfair!"

"Cut the insults, I want to know how you figured out that I wasn't human at all" the witch asked in a high pitched and screechy voice.

"Simple. My first clue was the address you gave me; 1728 Polo Street exists, but the house is vacant. I also noticed that a black cat had been following us the whole time. My other clue was the key chain on your purse; Master Yoh and I stumbled upon a book on the legend of witch craft, and we saw the same doll that you had on your bag right now. There are only three of those dolls which exist and all of them are in museums. The last clue was the way you dressed, talk about fashion, you're colors are clashing."

"Hmp! Well I suppose you were able to figure that one out" Riza's black cat jumped from a tree and morphed into a black panther. "I won't allow you to live anyway. That was an order to us from Master Hao, to kill all of you humans!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but humans do not die that easily, including me" Ryu said as he and his main spirit stood strong. "Tokageroh! Oversoul in to the wooden sword!"

"My panther, attack Ryu!" the black creature ran up to Ryu. He jumped over the panther before it slashed him into bits. When Ryu landed, he turned around without standing up and slashed the panther in half crosswise.

The witch was surprised, she was not expecting this in the first place. Her plan was foiled in an early stage, because her real plan was to lure Ryu to the abandoned house where she can use her witch craft at the fullest due to the influence of an old oak tree.

The witch could not find any good spells that might stop him and she was not good at close range combat.

"It looks like you lucked out" Ryu ran toward her, getting ready to deliver the final blow. The witch grabbed her broom and struck the ground, which sent thorns spouting out of the ground. Ryu anticipated the attack and jumped up. From mid air, he performed a vertical slash and finished off the witch.

"Glad that's over" Ryu landed on the ground and Tokageroh left the wooden sword. The both spotted a small object beneath the tiny white lights which was previously the body of a witch. Ryu picked it up and Tokageroh read the word on it, "Blind". The color of the stone changed from violet to purple and the word was now "Perceptive".

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Thank you for supporting my story and I hope you liked it. There's still a few more chapters to go before the two special "I didn't pick their names randomly out of the box" characters will have the spot light to themselves. So how many down? Nine. How many more to go? When will the chapter dedicated to the couples be uploaded? How is this story going to end? Just wait and see!


	11. Two Problems, One Solution

Have nothing much to say, except enjoy whatever chapter I have written at the moment. Read and review!

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Chapter 11: Two Problems, One Answer

Now that at least half of the stones are in possession of the shamans, he concluded that his brother and his friends would probably gather in the soul mata cemetery approximately an hour before the stroke of midnight. The only problem is, the gang does not know that Hao was planning a grand finale.

The shaman, or rather, the necromancer that catches Hao's attention next was none other than Hao and his wife Eliza. It looks like the patient is ready to visit the doctor, but the patient is the doctor himself.

Faust VIII stood behind Eliza, giving her his Furyoku for battle. Faust commanded Eliza to perform "Guillotine Chop" to slice the opponent. She succeeded in carrying out the attack, cutting off the arms of a headless horseman.

The arms fell to the ground and shattered into white lights, but its body was still intact. If Faust wanted to defeat it, he will have to do more than slashing off body parts. He was now getting really annoyed, he was spending too much time on the headless horseman and he still hasn't found a single stone, much to his own disappointment. With a snap of his fingers, bones from beneath the soil of a local cemetery grabbed hold of the limbs of the headless rider's horse and at the same time got grabbed in the legs by skeletons. This made the rider and its horse very vulnerable. Eliza took the opportunity to attack her opponent, leaving the opponent lifeless and now, formless.

It was unfortunate that they weren't able to find a stone in this monster, it was still nine o' clock, but they had to hurry. All the shamans searching for the stones noticed that the monsters got stronger and more vicious the closer it got to midnight. This worried them a lot; Faust signaled to Eliza that is was time to move.

* * *

"…" the black figure stood still and quiet like a predator in search of its prey. The only thing that seemed to move was his crimson red eyes which were seemingly hungry for blood and full of death.

"…" Hao also sat quietly on the roof top of a building. He liked his two companions; Spirit of Fire remained loyal to him, but the other seemed to be only following Hao because it had an obligation to fulfill, or perhaps for something else. It seemed to have an aura as sinister as Hao's; and by just looking at it, you can tell that this creature means business. "I noticed that you do not address me as 'master' unlike the other monsters or my followers."

The creature did not bother to even look at Hao. "I am not a servant, I am your ally"

Its answer was straight to the point and emotionless. Hao was impressed with this creature unlike the other monsters.

* * *

"Here comes another one, are you ready my dear Eliza?" Faust asked her. Eliza nodded silently and readied herself for another battle. In a matter of minutes, they were able to defeat the dragon skeleton with ease. "Still no stone Eliza?"

She shook her head sideways while looking down. Faust smiled softly at her which seemed to lift her spirit.

It has been hours since they left the inn, and they were being rained on by monsters non stop, like all the other shamans. Speaking of non stop, here comes another monster.

"Now that's new…" Faust said. The monster that they saw was a super deformed robot monster, a metal fire breathing robot monster which looked like a mutated hamster. It was only as big as a lamp post, but it looked dangerous. "Okay, Eliza, time to take this monster out too!"

Eliza charged towards the robot with the sickle in her hand. She tried to chop the robot's leg, but the tough metal was too hard to break. The attack merely scratched the flawless metal. Faust made a face, but he was still determined to defeat the monster. He transferred more Furyoku into Eliza and made her attack the monster some more, but the metal was really strong.

It was as if the robot only felt an insect biting it. Eliza jumped up and aimed for the head, but the robot merely tossed her aside. She landed on a brick wall and fell down. Faust was starting to burn in the inside, but not fully yet. Ever since he sided with Yoh, he learned that he had to calm down once in a while, but when it comes to Eliza, things would just be slightly different due to his over protective attitude towards her.

"Eliza, we can't give up now, let's show this monster what happens when he messes with you and me!" Faust said and Eliza immediately stood up. It was time to take things very seriously now. "Eliza! Feint Guillotine Slash!" She dashed to the robot; the robot readied itself for the attack, but just when she was a few meters before it, she disappeared. The robot was puzzled, and it made beeping and buzzing sounds, trying to find Eliza with its high tech enemy seeking device.

Nowhere, where was she. The robot suddenly sensed something above it, and it was right. Eliza was just about to stab it downwards, so the robot fired seeker missiles upwards. Then again, she disappeared before the seeker missiles could hit her; the missiles hit each other instead. She immediately reappeared behind the robot and hit it at the back; before the robot could attack her back, she successfully hit it and jumped away.

The attack's force caused major damage to the robot and the impact was so strong that a compartment in the robot accidentally opened. To Faust and Eliza's surprise, there lied a stone which they were looking for. A grayish stone with a word they can't clearly see from where they were standing right now.

The robot closed the compartment and readied itself; now it too was playing seriously, so now the real battle begins. Faust grinned and called forth a few skeletons; they grabbed on to the robot, making its movement go down greatly. Being unable to move, the robot had no choice but to block all the incoming attacks. Eliza's attacks were powerful unfortunately for it. The numerous attacks were starting to get to it. Finding out that a stone was in the robot made them more determined.

The robot now quickly thought of an idea. There is no way they are getting the stone no matter what, so it decided to go to suicide mode. Faust's eyes widened when he realized what the robot was doing. Different colored lights suddenly started blinking all over the robots body and before they knew it, there was a certain small field above the robot, it was blurry, but it seemed to be drawing in wind.

"Eliza, get out of there now!" Faust yelled out. The robot was able to create an artificial black hole, anything that goes in it will be destroyed. "ELIZA!" the force was pulling Eliza in, so she grabbed on to a lamp post, but it was being uprooted from the ground.

The robot fired grappling hooks and fastened them to a nearby building. The skeletons holding its feet lost their grips and got sucked into the black hole. Faust realized that both Eliza and the robot were loosing its grip; he too was being pulled towards the black hole, but the force was not as powerful since bothe Eliza and the robot were nearer. He had time to save either one, but he had to choose; the stone which will save the world, or the love of his life which which he treasured so very much.

Time was running out and both were loosing their grips. It's either the stone or Eliza, it was now or never. The decision was very hard to make for both of the two were important to him, but…which one? Which one was more important that he had the will to sacrifice the other?

The lamppost was almost uprooted from the ground and the robot was hanging on to only one grappling hook. It was time to make a decision. He quickly decided and ran to the two.

They were now flying into the air, so which one was he going to rescue.

Faust grabbed on to the building and reached out his hand, and with luck he was able to grab the one which was more important.

* * *

"He chose her over the world?" the figure in shadows said. "What was he thinking?"

"It may be because Eliza means more than the world to him, or its probably because he figured out the nothing can break the stone once it has transformed" Hao said.

* * *

The black hole ceased and everything was now still, the remaining debris that weren't sucked in the black hole fell down on the ground. "Eliza, are you okay?" Faust had Eliza in his arms and she had just woken up.

"Why did you sacrifice the stone for me?" she asked while Faust helped her and himself up.

"Well, I wanted to save the one which was most important to me, and that was you Eliza" Faust answered with his usual sweet smile. "You are very important to me and I can't sacrifice you for any thing. You were the reason why I was determined to get stronger."

"Thank you Faust" Eliza smiled at him. "…but the stone, it's gone. We can't stop Hao without all eighteen stones…"

"You're correct my dear Eliza, but as you can see there..." Faust pointed to where the black hole previously was, and a stone which was now white was floating towards them. Faust grabbed it and read "fraudulent" and it transformed into "devotion."

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I'm really sorry if this chapter was super short, because I had no idea what to write about them, believe me, I tried my best to make this story as exciting as possible. I'm running a little late on the chapter uploads, today was actually supposed to be the date when I upload Anna's chapter. I'll fix my upload schedule and try to make it get back on track.

I'm not sure if Eliza can talk or not, but I made her talk anyway, but she only has a few lines.

By the way, I hope the character's aren't too OOC, if they are, I'm really sorry; perhaps I have to get to know more about this couple. By the way, I made a mistake on the couples thingy, and it seems we have five instead of four.


	12. Thoughts Of An ExAvenger

Lotsa stuff to do, that's why I wasn't able to update soon. Anyway, here's the next chapter.

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Chapter 12: The Thoughts of an Ex-Avenger

"That's a La Chupacabra, a Mexican monster which likes to suck blood from goats according to belief" Lyserg said. He aimed at the small imp like monster and struck it in the chest. It disappeared but left no stone, this was starting to get irritating, especially for the shamans who have been searching for the stone for hours. Morphine left the pendulum and looked at Lyserg, who was starting to lose hope.

Lyserg then remembered what Yoh said, and it was to never lose hope. The other one which he always says is "everything will be alright".

"All right, let's go Morphine, we have a lot more ground to cover" Lyserg continued walking and looking for monsters. It wasn't too long before he sensed that there was another monster nearby. That too and because the place where he was at suddenly became foggy for no apparent and logical reason. "Okay, I know there's a monster hiding somewhere here, and whether you show yourself or not, I will destroy you!"

"My, you're a very aggressive boy now aren't you?" the monster said. It was another one of those talking monsters, but it was not spotted by Lyserg yet. "I am a vampire as you can see and it looks like you killed my pet."

"The La Chupacabra is your pet? It kind of makes sense since both of you like blood" Lyserg said. "Even if it was your pet, you're still going down along with it! Morphine! Oversoul in to the pendulum!"

"A duel it is then!" the vampire opened his palm and reached forward, the mist surrounding Lyserg and the monster turned into a red whip. The vampire grabbed the crimson colored whip which appeared in front of it. "Let's see who's better"

"You already know the answer to that! Homing Pendulum!" Lyserg aimed and fired his pendulum at the vampire. The monster tried to dodge it, but the pendulum was not going to stop until it has hit it. Then finally, it hit the vampire; however the wound was not that deep and the part that was hit was its shoulder.

"Heh, nice shot" the vampire slowly pulled the pendulum out of his shoulder. "…but it's going to take more than that if you want to destroy me that badly" Lyserg saw that the vampire's wound started healing, but very slowly. "Surprised? I have the ability to regenerate myself, lucky for you that this is only partial regeneration. Now, I believe its my turn." The vampire pulled on the pendulum that he still held in its hand and it then flew upwards. Lyserg was also pulled upwards due to the force, then the vampire suddenly pulled Lyserg up roughly so that he would shoot up slightly above it.

"Snake Bone Whip!" when Lyserg was at the right position above its head, he used his crimson whip to hit Lyserg hard as they fell towards the ground. Lyserg knew that he was not that good when it comes to aerial combat, so he had a hard time defending himself and avoiding the attacks. "Beat Thorn Barrage!" the vampire slashed the air and sent flying thorns to Lyserg. One hit from these thorns wouldn't hurt, a few hits might hurt a bit, but this was like a whole swarm of angry killer bees heading towards Lyserg's way.

"Morphine! Pendulum Revolution!" Lyserg performed an attack without knowing how to do it yet, but he was able to do it probably because of fear. The pendulum revolved so fast in front of him that is took form of a shield, allowing Lyeserg to block from the thorn attacks.

The two of them have already landed on the ground, both were still standing, but there were already a few rips in Lyserg's cloak. The vampire smiled and charged towards Lyserg, he in turn moved aside then behind the vampire. "Six Hundred Sixty Six Stabs!" Like Ren's Rapid Temple Assult, Lyserg's pendulum moved quickly and stabbed the vampire from one direction. There were a few misses and most of them hit the monster, but it was not yet out.

"Heh" the vampire chuckled softly. "Don't you just hate it when your enemy is a die hard?" the stab wounds that the vampire received regenerated, but very slowly. "Crimson Pillars!" the vampire's whip became as hard as a sword and then it planted the sword on the ground. Lyserg felt a sort of movement below his feet, realizing that the attack was coming from the ground, he quickly used the pendulum as a rope and ties it to a horizontal pole near the top of a nearby building. He rose up to the building before the attack could hit him. Just then, a numerous number of sharp pillars rapidly sprouted from the ground.

"Did you think I was done yet?" to Lyserg's surprise, the vampire was behind him. "Moon Strike!" Lyserg quickly let the pendulum release and let himself fall to the ground. He escaped the attack, but there was a long horizontal rip now at the back of his shirt. "You know, you are not worth my time." The vampire said to Lyserg as he tried to catch his breath. "You move slower than me and you can't block that good. If it weren't for your quick thinking and powerful attacking strength, then you would have been dead by now."

"Just you wait and see" Lyserg said while panting. "I will defeat you no matter what!"

"Hmph!" the vampire answered. "I will leave you for now, because like I said, you are not worth my energy. It is more fun to see you suffer from the wounds and the feeling of defeat, so I won't kill you just yet. I find humans like you fun to terrorize."

"Are you saying I'm weak?" Lyserg shouted. "If you leave now, I will still hunt you down and take revenge for defeating me. So you might as well finish the battle here, I'm not out yet, so why are you retreating?"

"Revenge? So you're the one Master Hao was talking about."

"What?"

"Yes, the shaman whose goal was to destroy Hao for killing his parents, Lyserg Dithel. All you wanted is revenge, am I not right? That changes everything then"

"So what are you trying to say!"

"You keep following Master Hao and you're being a pest to him, so he ordered me to finish you off once I see you."

"That will never happen, I will never be satisfied if I do not avenge the death of my parents!"

"What will happen then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your goal is to get revenge, what's next? What's next after that?"

"I…"

"Revenge is a short term goal. Once you have attained that goal, what would you do with your self next? That's what happens when the only thing some people care about is revenge, they are so preoccupied with revenge that they don't know what to do next. Their world revolves around that very concept, they think that it's their only duty in life; but I can't blame you after all. I do feel pity for you in fact, giving up everything just for that, your studies, your friends, and even your guardian spirit in order to get stronger."

Lyserg continued attacking the vampire, who kept parrying the attacks with his sword. "Well, am I right?'

Lyserg halted for a while, his bangs covering his eyes as he looked down on the ground.

"Well? Am I right Lyserg Dithel avenger?"

Lyserg looked up at him and smirked, not what the vampire had expected. "Do you think I think my world revolves around revenge?" the vampire backed away slightly, but unnoticed. "I have grown up from the concept of revenge. I had to learn it the hard way. You were right, I used to give up everything just for revenge, I even gave up my closest friends just to get powerful; but they still accepted me as their friend even though I betrayed them, I'm very thankful for that. When I thought that Hao was gone, I began to think, what will I do now that I have avenged my parents?"

"You were right, revenge is a short term goal and sometimes its not even worth it; because I found out that revenge will only help you relieve the pain that you felt when a wrong is done to you. Aside from that, it has no benefit at all. Now, my goal is to protect the ones who are close to me and show them that I am doing great and am enjoying my present, not worrying about my past."

"Are you the avenger that Hao mentioned? It can't be you can it?" the vampire said.

"I am the avenged that Hao mentioned, it's just that I changed my view on things" Lyserg readied himself, he was going to give his all on this attack in order to finish the enemy. "Big Ben Attack!" a giant clock tower facing downwards fell on the vampire whom did not anticipate the attack and was therefore destroyed. The monster disappeared and what took its place was a dark green stone which turned into light green. The word written on it changed from "prejudiced" to "tolerance".

* * *

"So he really did grow up" Hao watched Lyserg retrieve the stone. 

"Did you lie to the vampire when you told it that Lyserg Dithel was an avenger?" the shadowy creature asked.

"No I didn't lie, I just did not tell him that Lyserg has changed."

"So you were playing with it, even though it held one of the stones?"

"You are right there, I just wanted to test all of them to see if they can survive before midnight."

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"Alright, I was able to do the Lyserg chapter, now there are only two characters remaining who do not have individual chapters, obviously you guys should know it by now, but just in case you don't just wait for the next chapter. Don't worry, I'll be updating soon.

By the way, about the previous black hole thingy in the Faust chapter, if you don't get it, let me explain. As you all know, nothing can escape a black hole at a certain range, not even light. So everything in its range gets sucked in and crushed in to nothing. What the robot had was an artificial black hole (which is fictional because it is not possible to make due to the fact that black holes only exist in space after a star has shrunken and dies), so it was not as strong as a real black hole, so Faust was able to use most of his strength to escape it.


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